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l^^-jj 6 ACADeNjY SeRieS OF 
ja96 eNGLISH CLASSICS 




Shakespeare 
The Merchant of Venice 



EDITED BY 

S. THURBER 



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ALLYN AND BACON 




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E\)c ^calTfmg Series of lEngUst) Classics 



1^ 

SHAKESPEARE 



The Merchant of Venice 



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EDITED BY 



SAMUEL THURBER 



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1 JUL ^018^6 ^r. 



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Boston 

ALLYN AND BACON 



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Copyright, 1896, 
By SAMUEL THURBER. 



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J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



My endeavor, in editing the Merchant of Venice, has 
been solely to adapt the play to educational purposes. 
I have had in view young people of seventeen or eighteen 
years, who are studying literature as a serious business, 
who are accustomed to work over prescribed lessons, and 
who will not take it ill if they are asked to devote to 
their Shakespeare certain periods of meditation and 
research. In proportion to the vigor and the natural- 
ness of the teaching, pupils crave to see and understand 
the processes of investigators, and refuse to be satisfied 
with the mere presentation of results obtained by other 
minds. 

Hence my conception of the proper editing of a play 
of Shakespeare is that the book should take the learner 
into the Shakespearian laboratory. In the literary work- 
shop the pupil should witness and perform experiments. 
The function of the teacher is to preside over experi- 
ments. The only function of the annotator is to help 
the teacher with suggestion ; and if the teacher sees his 
way clearly enough without such help, and can without 
loss of time bring before his class an abundance of refer- 
ences, he may well dispense with all printed notes. 

As in my editions of Julius Caesar and Macbeth, my 
notes are, properly, not notes, but queries. The main 
principle of my method is to insist on as much original 



iv PREFACE. 

work as the maturity of the learners permits. Original 
work should in every way be encouraged, and time for it 
should be provided. It is unfortunate for a class to be 
compelled to " get up " a play of Shakespeare in great 
haste. 

The references are always to the " Globe " Shakespeare, 
— a book absolutely indispensable to every Shakespeare 
student. The numbering of the lines in this volume is 
made to conform to the " Globe " numbering, even though, 
in consequence of occasional excisions — rendered neces- 
sary by the purpose of the book — and in consequence of 
different lengths of lines in the printing of prose, the 
numbers be found here and there not to harmonize with 
the results of actual counting. 



SAMUEL THURBEK. 



Girls' High School, Boston, 
April, 1896. 



s 



THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 



DEAMATIS PEESON"^. 



The Duke of Yenice. 
The Prince op Morocco, ) suitors to 
The Peince of Arragon, ) Portia. 
Antonio, a merchant of Venice. 
Bassanio, his friend, suitor likewise to 

Portia. 
Salanio, 1 
Salarino, 
Gratiano, 
Salerio, 
Lorenzo, in love with Jessica. 
Shylock, a rich Jew. 
Tubal, a Jew, his friend. 
Launcelot Gobbo, the clown, servant 

to Shylock. 



friends to Antonio and 
Bassanio. 



Old Gobbo, father to Launcelot. 
Leonardo, servant to Bassanio. 

BaLTHASAR, 1 4. ^ T) +•„ 

' ]. servants to Portia. 
Stephano, ) 

Portia, a rich heiress. 

Nerissa, her waiting-maid. 

Jessica, daughter to Shylock. 

Magnificoes of Venice, OflBcers of the 
Court of Justice, Gaoler, Servants 
to Portia, and other Attendants. 

Scene : Partly at Venice, and partly 
at Belmont, the seat of Portia, on 
the Continent. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. Venice. A street. 
Enter Antonio, Salarino, and Salanio. 

Ant. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad : 
It wearies me ; you say it wearies you ; 
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, 
What stuff 't is made of, whereof it is born, 
I am to learn ; 

And such a want-wit sadness makes of me. 
That I have much ado to know myself. 

Solar. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; 
There, where your argosies with portly sail, 

B 1 



2 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Like signiors and rich, burghers on the flood, 10 

Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, 

Do overpeer the petty traffickers. 

That curtsy to them, do them reverence. 

As they fly by them with their woven wings. 

Solan. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, 15 
The better part of my affections would 
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still 
Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind. 
Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads; 
And every object that might make me fear 20 

Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt 
Would make me sad. 

Solar. My wind cooling my broth 

Would blow me to an ague, when I thought 
What harm a wind too great at sea might do. 
I should not see the sandy hour-glass run, 25 

But I should think of shallows and of flats, 
And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand, 
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs 
To kiss her burial. Should I go to church 
And see the holy edifice of stone, 30 

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks. 
Which touching but my gentle vessel's side, 
Would scatter all her spices on the stream. 
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks. 
And, in a word, but even now worth this, 35 

And now worth nothing ? Shall I have the thought 
To think on this, and shall I lack the thought 
That such a thing bechanced would make me sad ? 
But tell not me ; I know, Antonio 
Is sad to think upon his merchandise. 40 



ACT I. SCENE I. 3 

Ant. Believe me, no : I tliank my fortune for it, 
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, 
Nor to one place ; nor is my whole estate 
Upon the fortune of this present year : 
Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. 45 

jSalar. Why, then you are in love. 

Ant. Fie, fie ! 

JSalar. Not in love neither? Then let us say you are 
sad, 
Because you are not merry : and 't were as easy 
For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry. 
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus, 50 
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time : 
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes 
And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper, 
And other of such vinegar aspect 

That they '11 not show their teeth in way of smile, 55 
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. 

Enter Bassa^^o, Lorenzo, and Gkatiano. 

Solan. Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kins- 
man, 
Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well : 
We leave you now with better company. 

Salar. I would have stayed till I had made you 
merry, 60 

If worthier friends had not prevented me. 

Ant. Your worth is very dear in my regard. 
I take it, your own business calls on you 
And you embrace the occasion to depart. 

Salar. Good morrow, my good lords. 65 



4 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Bass. Grood signiors both, when shall we laugh ? say, 
when? 
You grow exceeding strange : must it be so ? 

Solar. We '11 make our leisures to attend on yours. 

[Exeunt Salarino and Salanio. 

Lor. My Lord Bassanio, since you have found 

Antonio, 
We two wilL leave you: but at dinner-time, 70 

I pray you, have in mind where we must meet. 

Bass. I will not fail you. 

Gra. You look not well, Signior Antonio ; 
You have too much respect upon the world : 
They lose it that do buy it with much care : 75 

Believe me, you are marvellously changed. 

Ant. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano ; 
A stage where every man must play a part, 
And mine a sad one. 

Gra. Let me play the fool : 

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come, 80 

And let my liver rather heat with wine 
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. 
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within. 
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster ? 
Sleep when he wakes and creep into the jaundice 85 

By being peevish ? I tell thee what, Antonio — 
I love thee, and it is my love that speaks — 
There are a sort of men whose visages 
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond. 
And do a wilful stillness entertain, 90 

With purpose to be dressed in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit. 
As who should say " I am Sir Oracle, 



ACT L SCENE I. 6 

And when I ope my lips let no dog bark ! " 

my Antonio, I do know of these 95 
That therefore only are reputed wise 

For saying nothing, when, I am very sure. 

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears 

Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools. 

1 '11 tell thee more of this another time : lOO 
But fish not, with this melancholy bait, 

For this fool gudgeon, this opinion. 

Come, good Lorenzo. Fare ye well awhile : 

I '11 end my exhortation after dinner. 

Lor. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time : 105 
I must be one of these same dumb wise men, 
For Gratiano never lets me speak. 

Gra. Well, keep me company but two years moe. 
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue. 

Ant. Farewell : I '11 grow a talker for this gear : lio 

Gra. Thanks i' faith, for silence is only commendable 
In a neat's tongue dried. 

[Exeuyit Gratiano and Lorenzo. 

Ant. Is that any thing now ? 

Bass. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more 
than any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains 
of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff : you shall seek all 
day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are 
not worth the search. 

Ant. Well, tell me now what lady is the same 
To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, 120 

That you to-day promised to tell me of ? 

Bass. 'T is not unknown to you, Antonio, 
How much I have disabled mine estate, 
By something showing a more swelling port 



b THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Than my faint means would grant continuance : 125 

Nor do I now make moan to be abridged 

From such a noble rate ; but my chief care 

Is to come fairly off from the great debts 

Wherein my time something too prodigal 

Hath left me gaged. To you, Antonio, 130 

I owe the most, in money and in love, 

And from your love I have a warranty 

To unburden all my plots and purposes 

How to get clear of all the debts I owe. 

Ant. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it ; 135 
And if it stand, as you yourself still do, 
Within the eye of honor, be assured, 
My purse, my person, my extremest means, 
Lie all unlocked to your occasions. 

Bass. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, 140 
I shot his fellow of the self-same flight 
The self-same way with more advised watch. 
To find the other forth, and by adventuring both 
I oft found both : I urge this childhood proof. 
Because what follows is pure innocence. 145 

I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth. 
That which I owe is lost ; but if you please 
To shoot another arrow that self way 
Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt, 
As I will watch the aim, or to find both 150 

Or bring your latter hazard back again 
And thankfully rest debtor for the first. 

Ant. You know me well, and herein spend but time 
To wind about my love with circumstance ; 
And out of doubt you do me now more wrong 155 

In making question of my uttermost 



ACT I. SCENE I. 1 

Than if you had made waste of all I have : 

Then do but say to me what I should do 

That in your knowledge may by me be done, 

And I am prest unto it : therefore, speak. 160 

Bass. In Belmont is a lady richly left ; 
And she is fair and, fairer than that word. 
Of wondrous virtues : sometimes from her eyes 
I did receive fair speechless messages : 
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued 165 

To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia : 
'Nov is the wide world ignorant of her worth, 
For the four winds blow in from every coast 
Eenowned suitors, and her sunny locks 
Hang on her temples like a golden fleece ; 170 

Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strand. 
And many Jasons come in quest of her. 

my Antonio, had I but the means 
To hold a rival place with one of them, 

1 have a mind presages me such thrift, 175 
That I should questionless be fortunate ! 

Ant. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea ; 
Neither have I money nor commodity 
To raise a present sum : therefore go forth ; 
Try what my credit can in Venice do : 180 

That shall be racked, even to the uttermost. 
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia. 
Go, presently inquire, and so will I, 

AVhere money is, and I no question make 184 

To have it of my trust or for my sake. [_Exeunt. 



8 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Scene II. Belmont. A room in Portia's house. 
Enter Portia and Nerissa. 

Por. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary 
of this great world. 

Ner. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries 
were in the same abundance as your good fortunes are : 
and yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit 
with too much as they that starve with nothing. It is 
no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the mean : 
superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency 
lives longer. 10 

Por. Good sentences and well pronounced. 

Ner. They would be better, if well followed. 

Por. If to do were as easy as to know what were good 
to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages 
princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own 
instructions : I can easier teach twenty what were good 
to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own 
teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood, but 
a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree : such a hare is 
madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good coun- 
sel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion 
to choose me a husband. me, the word '• choose ! " I 
may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I 
dislike ; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the 
will of a dead father. Is it not hard, ISTerissa, that I can- 
not choose one nor refuse none ? 29 

Ner. Your father was ever virtuous ; and holy men 
at their death have good inspirations : therefore the lot- 
tery, that he hath devised in these three chests of gold, 



ACT L SCENE 11. 9 

silver and lead, whereof who chooses his meaning chooses 
you, will, no doubt, never be chosen by any rightly but 
one who shall rightly love. But what warmth is there 
in your affection towards any of these princely suitors 
that are already come ? 38 

Por. I pray thee, over-name them ; and as thou namest 
them, I will describe them ; and, according to my descrip- 
tion, level at my affection. 

Ne7\ First, there is the Neapolitan prince. 

Por. Ay, that 's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing 
but talk of his horse : and he makes it a great appro- 
priation to his own good parts, that he can shoe him 
himself. 47 

Ner. Then there is the County Palatine. 

Por. He doth nothing but frown, as who should say, 
" If you will not have me, choose : " he hears merry tales 
and smiles not : I fear he will prove the weeping philoso- 
pher when he grows old, being so full of unmannerly 
sadness in his youth. I had rather be married to a 
death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of 
these. God defend me from these two ! 57 

Ner. How say you by the French lord. Monsieur Le 
Bon? 

Por. God made him, and therefore let him pass for a 
man. In truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker : but, 
he ! why, he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan's, 
a better bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine ; 
he is every man in no man ; if a throstle sing, he falls 
straight a capering: he will fence with his own shadow: 
if I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands. 
If he would despise me, I would forgive him, for if he 
love me to madness, I shall never requite him. 70 



10 THE MEBCHANT OF VENICE. 

Ner. What say you, then, to Falcoiibridge, the young 
baron of England ? 

Pot. You know I say nothing to him, for he under- 
stands not me, nor I him : he hath neither Latin, French, 
nor Italian, and you will come into the court and swear 
that I have a poor pennyworth in the English. He is a 
proper man's picture, but, alas, who can converse with 
a dumb-show ? How oddly he is suited ! I think he 
bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his 
bonnet in Germany and his behavior everywhere. 81 

Ner. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neigh- 
bor ? 

Por. That he hath a neighborly charity in him,^ for he 
borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman and swore 
he would pay him again when he was able : I think the 
Frenchman became his surety and sealed under for an- 
other. 

Ner. How like you the young German, the Duke of 
Saxony's nephew ? 91 

Por. Very vilely in the morning, when he is sober, 

and most vilely in the afternoon, when he is drunk : when 

he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he 

is worst, he is little better than a beast : an the worst fall 

* that ever fell, I hope I shall make shift to go without him. 

Ner. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right 
casket, you should refuse to perform your father's will, 
if you should refuse to accept him. 

Por. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee set 
a deep glass of rhenish wine on the contrary casket, for 
if the devil be within and that temptation without, I 
know he will choose it. I will do any thing, Nerissa, ere 
I '11 be married to a sponge. 108 



ACT L SCENE II. 11 

Ner. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these 
lords : they have acquainted me with their determina- 
tions ; which is, indeed, to return to their home and to 
trouble you with no more suit, unless you may be won by 
some other sort than your father's imposition depending 
on the caskets. 115 

. For. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as 
chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of 
my father's will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so 
reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote 
on his very absence, and I pray God grant them a fair 
departure. 122 

Ner. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, 
a Venetian, a scholar, and a soldier, that came hither in 
company of the Marquis of Montferrat ? 126 

For. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio ; as I think, he was so 
called. 

Ner. True, madam : he, of all the men that ever my 
foolish eyes looked upon, was the best deserving a fair 
lady. 

For. I remember him well, and I remember him 
worthy of thy praise. 133 

Enter a Serving-man. 
How now ! what news ? 

Serv. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to 
take their leave : and there is a forerunner come from a 
fifth, the Prince of Morocco, who brings word the prince 
his master will be here to-night. 139 

For. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good a 
heart as I can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad 
of his approach : if he have the condition of a saint and 



12 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive 
me than wive me. 

Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before. 146 

Whiles we shut the gates upon one wooer, another knocks 

at the door. [^Exeunt. 

Scene III. Venice. A public place. 
Enter Bassanio and Shylock. 

Shy. Three thousand ducats ; well. 

Bass. Ay, sir, for three months. 

Shy. For three months ; well. 

Bass. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be 
bound. 5 

Shy. Antonio shall become bound ; well. 

Bass. May you stead me? will you pleasure me? 
shall I know your answer ? 

Shy. Three thousand ducats for three months and 
Antonio bound. 10 

Bass. Your answer to that. 

Shy. Antonio is a good man. 

Bass. Have you heard any imputation to the con- 
trary ? 14 

Shy. Oh, no, no, no, no : my meaning in saying he is 
a good man is to have you understand me that he is suffi- 
cient. Yet his means are in supposition : he hath an 
argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies ; I under- 
stand, moreover, upon the E-ialto, he hath a third at 
Mexico, a fourth for England, and other ventures he hath, 
squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors 
but men : there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves 
and land-thieves, I mean pirates, and then there is the 



ACT I. SCENE III. 13 

peril of waters, winds and rocks. The man is, notwith- 
standing, sufficient. Three thousand ducats ; I think I 
may take his bond. 28 

Bass. Be assured you may. 

Shy. I will be assured I may ; and, that I may be as- 
sured, I will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio ? 

Bass. If it please you to dine with us. 33 

Shy. Yes, to smell pork; to eat of the habitation 
which your prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into. 
I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk 
with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you, 
drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the 
Eialto ? Who is he comes here ? 40 

Enter Antonio. 

Bass. This is Signior Antonio. 

Shy. [Aside'] How like a fawning publican he looks ! 
I hate him for he is a Christian, 
But more for that in low simplicity 

He lends out money gratis and brings down 45 

The rate of usance here with us in Venice. 
If I can catch him once upon the hip, 
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails. 
Even there where merchants most do congregate, 50 

On me, my bargains and my well-won thrift. 
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe, 
If I forgive him ! 

Bass. Shylock, do you hear ? 

Shy. I am debating of my present store, 
And, by the near guess of my memory, 55 

I cannot instantly raise up the gross 



14 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Of full three thousand ducats. What of that ? 

Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe, 

Will furnish me. But soft ! how many months 

Do you desire ? [_To Ant.'] Eest you fair, good signior ; 60 

Your worship was the last man in our mouths. 

Ant. Shylock, although I neither lend nor borrow 
By taking nor by giving of excess. 
Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend, 
I '11 break a custom. Is he yet possessed 65 

How much ye would ? 

Sliy. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. 

Ant. And for three months. 

Shy. I had forgot ; three months ; you told me so. 
Well then, your bond ; and let me see ; but hear you ; 
Methought you said you neither lend nor borrow 70 

Upon advantage. 

Ant. I do never use it. 

Shy. When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep — 
This Jacob from our holy Abram was. 
As his wise mother wrought in his behalf, 
The third possessor ; ay, he was the third — 75 

Ant. And what of him ? did he take interest ? 

Shy. No, not take interest, not, as you would say. 
Directly interest : mark what Jacob did 
When Laban and himself were compromised 
That all the eanlings which were streaked and pied 80 
Should fall as Jacob's hire. 

This was a way to thrive, and he was blest : 90 

And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. 

Ant. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for ; 
A thing not in his power to bring to pass. 
But swayed and fashioned by the hand of heaven. 



ACT I. SCENE III. 15 

Was this inserted to make interest good ? 95 

Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams ? 

jShy. I cannot tell ; I make it breed as fast : 
But note me, signior. 

A7it. Mark you this, Bassanio, 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. 
An evil soul producing holy witness 100 

Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, 
A goodly a]ople rotten at the heart : 
0, w^hat a goodly outside falsehood hath ! 

Shy. Three thousand ducats ; 't is a good round sum. 
Three months from twelve ; then, let me see ; the rate — 
- A7it. Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you ? 

Shy. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft 107 

In the Rialto you have rated me 
About my moneys and my usances : 

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, iio 

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe. 
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog. 
And si^it upon my Jewish gaberdine. 
And all for use of that which is mine own. 
Well then, it now appears you need my help : 115 

Go to, then ; you come to me, and you say, 
" Shylock, we would have moneys : " you say so ; 
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard 
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur 
Over your threshold : moneys is your suit. 120 

What should I say to you ? Should I not say, 
" Hath a dog money ? is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? " Or 
Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key. 
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, 125 



16 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Say this ; 

" Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last ; 

You spurned me such a day ; another time 

You called me dog ; and for these courtesies 

I '11 lend you thus much moneys " ? 130 

Ant. I am as like to call thee so again, 
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. 
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not 
As to thy friends ; for when did friendship take 
A breed for barren metal of his friend ? 135 

But lend it rather to thine enemy. 
Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face 
Exact the penalty. 

Shy. Why, look you, how you storm ! 

I would be friends with you and have your love. 
Forget the shames that you have stained me with, 140 
Supply your present wants and take no doit 
Of usance for my moneys, and you '11 not hear me : 
This is kind I offer. 

Bass. This were kinduess. 

Shy. This kindness will I show. 

Go with me to a notary, seal me there 145 

Your single bond ; and, in a merry sport, 
If you repay me not on such a day, 
In such a place, such sum or sums as are 
Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit 
Be nominated for an equal pound 150 

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken 
In what part of your body pleaseth me. 

Ant Content, i' faith : I '11 seal to such a bond 
And say there is much kindness in the Jew. 



ACT I. SCENE III. 17 

Bass. You shall not seal to such a bond for me : 155 
I '11 rather dwell in my necessity. 

Ant. Why, fear not, man ; I will not forfeit it : 
Within these two months, that 's a month before 
This bond expires, I do expect return 
Of thrice three times the value of this bond. 160 

Shy. father Abram, what these Christians are. 
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect 
The thoughts of others ! Pray you, tell me this; 
If he should break his day, what should I gain 
By the exaction of the forfeiture ? 165 

A pound of man's flesh taken from a man 
•Is not so estimable, profitable neither, 
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say, 
To buy his favor, I extend this friendship : 
If he will take it, so ; if not, adieu ; 170 

And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not. 

Ant. Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond. 

Shy. Then meet me forthwith at the notary's ; 
Give him direction for this merry bond. 
And I will go and purse the ducats straight, 175 

See to my house, left in the fearful guard 
Of an unthrifty knave, and presently 
I will be with you. 

Ant. Hie thee, gentle Jew. \_Exit Shylock. 

The Hebrew will turn Christian : he grows kind. 18O 

Bass. I like not fair terms and a villain's mind. 

Ant. Come on : in this there can be no dismay ; 
My ships come home a month before the day. 

^ \_Exeunt. 



18 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

ACT II. 

Scene I. Belmont. A room in Portia's house. 

Flourish of cornets. Enter the Princ:^ of Morocco and 
his train; Portia, Nerissa, and others attending. 

Mor. Mislike me not for my complexion, 
The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, 
To whom I am a neighbor and near bred. 
Bring me the fairest creature northward born, 
Where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles, 5 

And let us make incision for your love. 
To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. 
I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine - 
Hath feared the valiant : by my love, I swear 
The best-regarded virgins of our clime 10 

Have loved it too : I would not change this hue. 
Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen. 

Por. In terms of choice I am not solely led 
By nice direction of a maiden's eyes ; 
Besides, the lottery of my destiny 15 

Bars me the right of voluntary choosing : 
But if my father had not scanted me 
And hedged me by his wit, to yield myself 
His wife who wins me by that means I told you, 
Yourself, renowned prince, then stood as fair 20 

As any comer I have looked on yet 
For my affection. 

Mor. Even for that I thank you: 

Therefore, I pray you, lead me to the caskets 
To try my fortune. By this scimitar 
That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince 25 



ACT II. SCENE II. 19 

That won three fields of Sultan Solyman, 

I would outstare the sternest eyes that look, 

Outbrave the heart most daring on the earth, 

Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear, 

Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey, 30 

To win thee, lady. But, alas the while ! 

If Hercules and Lichas play at dice 

Which is the better man, the greater throw 

May turn by fortune from the weaker hand : 

So is Alcides beaten by his page ; 35 

And so may I, blind fortune leading me. 

Miss that which one unworthier may attain. 

And die with grieving. 

For. You must take your chance. 

And either not attempt to choose at all, 
Or swear before you choose, if you choose wrong, 40 

Never to speak to lady afterward 
In way of marriage : therefore be advised. 

Mor. Nor will not. Come, bring me unto my chance. 

For. Pirst, forward to the temple : after dinner 
Your hazard shall be made. 

Mor. Good fortune then ! 45 

To make me blest or cursed'st among men. 

[^Cornets, and exeunt. 

Scene II. Venice. A street. 

Enter Launcelot. 

Laun. Certainly my conscience will serve me to run 
from this Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow 
and tempts me, saying to me, " Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, 
good Launcelot," or " good Gobbo," or "good Launcelot 
Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away." My 



20 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

conscience says, ";N"o; take heed, honest Launcelot; take 
heed, honest Gobbo," or, as aforesaid, " honest Launcelot 
Gobbo ; do not run ; scorn running with thy heels." Well, 
the most courageous fiend bids me pack : " Via ! " says the 
fiend ; " away ! " says the fiend ; " for the heavens, rouse 
up a brave mind," says the fiend, " and run." Well, my 
conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says very 
wisely to me, "My honest friend Launcelot, being an 
honest man's son," or rather an honest woman's son ; for, 
indeed, my father did something smack, something grow 
to, he had a kind of taste; well, my conscience says, 
" Launcelot, budge not." " Budge," says the fiend. 
" Budge not," says my conscience. " Conscience," say I, 
" you counsel w^ell ; " " Fiend," say I, " you counsel 
well : " to be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with 
the Jew my master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind 
of devil ; and, to run away from the Jew, I should be 
ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the 
devil himself. Certainly the Jew is the very devil in- 
carnal ; and, in my conscience, my conscience is but a 
kind of hard conscience, to offer to counsel me to stay 
with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly counsel : 
I will run, fiend ; my heels are at your command ; I will 
run. 33 

Enter Old Gobbo, with a basket. 

Gob. Master young man, you, I pray you, which is 
the way to master Jew's ? 

Laun. \_Aside'] heavens, this is my true-begotten 
father ! who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel 
blind, knows me not : I will try confusions with him. 

Gob. Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is 
the way to Master Jew's ? 41 



<" 



7 



ACT II. SCENE II. 21 

Laun. Turn up on your right hand at the next turn- 
ing, but, at the next turning of all, on your left ; marry, 
at the very next turning, turn of no hand, but turn down 
indirectly to the Jew's house. 45 

Gob. By God's sonties, 't will be a hard way to hit. 
Can you tell me whether one Launcelot, that dwells with 
him, dwell with him or no ? 

Laun. Talk you of young Master Launcelot ? \_Aside] 
Mark me now; now I will raise the waters. Talk you of 
young Master Launcelot ? 51 

Goh. No master, sir, but a poor man's son : his father, 
though I say it, is an honest exceeding poor man and, Grod 
be thanked, well to live. 

Laun. Well, let his father be what a' will, we talk of 
young Master Launcelot. 56 

Goh. Your worship's friend and Launcelot, sir. 

Laun. But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech 
you, talk you of young Master Launcelot ? 

Goh. Of Launcelot, an 't please your mastership. 60 

Laun. Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master 
Launcelot, father; for the young gentleman, according 
to Fates and Destinies and such odd sayings, the Sisters 
Three and such branches of learning, is indeed deceased, 
or, as you would say in plain terms, gone to heaven. 

Goh. Marry, God forbid ! the boy was the very staff 
of my age, my very prop. 70 

Laun. Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff 
or a prop ? Do you know me, father ? 

Goh. Alack the day, I know you not, young gentle- 
man : but, I pray you, tell me, is my boy, God rest his 
soul, alive or dead? 

Laun. Do you not know me, father ? 76 



22 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Gob. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind ; I know you not. 

Laun. Nay, indeed, if you liad your eyes, you might 
fail of the knowing me : it is a wise father that knows his 
own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your 
son: give me your blessing: truth will come to light; 
murder cannot be hid long ; a man's son may, but at the 
length truth will out. 85 

Goh. Pray you, sir, stand up : I am sure you are not 
Launcelot, my boy. 

Laun. Pray you, let 's have no more fooling about it, 
but give me your blessing: I am Launcelot, your boy that 
was, your son that is, your child that shall be. 91 

Goh. I cannot think you are my son. 

Laun. I know not what I shall think of that : but I 
am Launcelot, the Jew's man, and I am sure Margery 
your wife is my mother. 

Goh. Her name is Margery, indeed : I '11 be sworn, if 
thou be Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood. 
Lord worshipped might he be ! what a beard hast thou 
got ! thou hast got more hair on thy chin than Dobbin 
my fill-horse has on his tail. lOl 

Laun. It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows 
backward : I am sure he had more hair of his tail than I 
have of my face when I last saw him. 

Goh. Lord, how art thou changed ! How dost thou 
and thy master agree ? I have brought him a present. 
How 'gree you now ? 108 

Laun. Well, well : but, for mine own part, as I have 
set up my rest to run away, so I will not rest till I have 
run some ground. My master 's a very Jew : give him a 
present ! give him a halter : I am famished in his service ; 
you may tell every finger I have with my ribs. Father, 



ACT II. SCENE II. 23 

I am glad yon are come : give me your present to one 
Master Bassanio, who, indeed, gives rare new liveries : if 
I serve not him, I will rnn as far as Grod has any gronnd. 

rare fortune ! here comes the man : to him, father ; for 

1 am a Jew, if I serve the Jew any longer. 120 

• Enter Bassanio, ^vitJi Leonardo and other folloivers. 

Bass. Yon may do so; but let it be so hasted that 
supper be ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See 
these letters delivered ; put the liveries to making, and 
desire G-ratiano to come anon to my lodging. 125 

l^Exit a Servant. 

Laun. To him, father. 

Goh. God bless your worship ! 

Bass. Gramercy ! would st thou aught with me ? 

Goh. Here 's my son, sir, a poor boy, — 

Laun. Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man ; 
that would, sir, as my father shall specify — 131 

Goh. He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, 
to serve, — 

Laun. Indeed, the short and the long is, I serve the 
Jew, and have a desire, as my father shall specify — 

Goh. His master and he, saving your worship's rev- 
erence, are scarce cater-cousins — 139 

Laun. To be brief, the very truth is that the Jew, 
having done me wrong, doth cause me, as my father, 
being, I hope, an old man, shall f rutify unto you — 

Goh. I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow 
upon your worship, and my suit is — 145 

Laun. In very brief, the suit is impertinent to my- 
self, as your worship shall know by this honest old man ; 



24 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

and, tliough. I say it, though, old man, yet poor man, my 
father. 

Bass. One speak for both. What would you ? 

Laun. Serve you, sir. 151 

Gob. That is the very defect of the matter, sir. 

Bass. I know thee well ; thou hast obtained thy suit : 
Shylock thy master spoke with me this day. 
And hath preferred thee, if it be preferment 155 

To leave a rich Jew's service, to become 
The follower of so poor a gentleman. 

Laun. The old proverb is very well parted between 
my master Shylock and you, sir : you have the grace of 
God, sir, and he hath enough. 160 

Bass. Thou speak'st it well. Go, father, with thy son. 
Take leave of thy old master and inquire 
My lodging out. Give him a livery 
More guarded than his fellows' : see it done. 1G4 

Laun. Father, in. I cannot get a service, no ; I have 
ne'er a tongue in my head. Well, if any man in Italy 
have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a 
book, I shall have good fortune. Go to, here 's a simple 
line of life : here 's a small trifle of wives : alas, fifteen 
wives is nothing ! eleven widows and nine maids is a 
simple coming-in for one man : and then to 'scape drown- 
ing thrice, and to be in peril of my life with the edge 
of a feather-bed; here are simple scapes. Well, if Fort- 
une be a woman, she 's a good wench for this gear. 
Father, come ; I '11 take my leave of the Jew in the 
twinkling of an eye. 177 

\_Exeunt Launcelot and Old Oohho. 

Bass. I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this : 
These things being bought and orderly bestowed. 



ACT II. SCENE II. 25 

Heturn in haste, for I do feast to-night 180 

My best-esteemed acquaintance : hie thee, go. 
Leon. My best endeavors shall be done herein. 

Enter Gratiano. 

Gra. Where is your master ? 

Leon. Yonder, sir, he walks. [Exit. 

Gra. Signior Bassanio ! 185 

Bass. Gratiano ! 

Gra. I have a suit to you. 

Bass. You have obtained it. 

Gra. You must not deny me : I must go with you to 
Belmont. 

Bass. Why, then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano ; 
Thou art too wild, too rude and bold of voice ; 
Parts that become thee happily enough 191 

And in such eyes as ours appear not faults ; 
But where thou art not known, why, there they show 
Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain 
To allay with some cold drops of modesty 195 

Thy skipping spirit, lest through thy wild behavior 
I be misconstrued in the place I go to 
And lose my hopes. 

Gra. Signior Bassanio, hear me : 

If I do not put on a sober habit, 

Talk with respect and swear but now and then, 200 

Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely, 
Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes 
Thus with my hat, and sigh and say '^ amen," 
Use all the observance of civility. 

Like one well studied in a sad ostent 205 

To please his grandam, never trust me more. 



26 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Bass. Well, we shall see your bearing. 

Gra. Nay, but I bar to-night : you shall not gauge me 
By what we do to-night. 

Bass. No, that were pity : 

I would entreat you rather to put on 210 

Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends 
That purpose merriment. But fare you well : 
I have some business. 

Gra. And I must to Lorenzo and the rest : 
But we will visit you at supper-time. lExeunt. 



Scene III. The same. A room In Shylock's house. 
Enter Jessica and Laltncelot. 

Jes. I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so : 
Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil. 
Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness. 
But fare thee well, there is a ducat for thee : 
And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see 5 

Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest : 
Give him this letter ; do it secretly ; 
And so farewell : I would not have my father 
See me in talk with thee. 9 

Laun. Adieu ! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beauti- 
ful pagan, most sweet Jew! But, adieu: these foolish 
drops do something drown my manly spirit : adieu. 

Jes. Farewell, good Launcelot. [_Exit Launcelot. 

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me 16 

To be ashamed to be my father's child ! 
But though I am a daughter to his blood, 
I am not to his manners. Lorenzo, 



ACT 11. SCENE IV. 27 

If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, 20 

Become a Christian and thy loving wife. [Exit. 

Scene IV. The same. A street. 

Enter Geatiano, Lorenzo, Salarino, cukI Salanio. 

Lor. Nay, we will slink away in supper-time. 
Disguise us at my lodging and return. 
All in an hour. 

Gra. We have not made good preparation. 

Salar. We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers. 5 

Salan. 'T is vile, unless it may be quaintly ordered, 
And better in my mind not undertook. 

Lor. 'T is now but four o'clock : we have two hours 
To furnish us. 

Enter Launcelot, imth a letter. 

Friend Launcelot, what 's the news ? 

Laun. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall 
seem to signify. li 

Lor. I know the hand : in faith, 't is a fair hand ; 
And whiter than the paper it writ on 
Is the fair hand that writ. 

Qra. Love-news, in faith. 

Laun. By your leave, sir. 15 

Lor. Whither goest thou ? 

Laun. Marry, sir, to bid my old master the Jew to 
sup to-night with my new master the Christian. 

Lor. Hold here, take this : tell gentle Jessica 20 

I will not fail her ; speak it privately. 
Go, gentlemen, \_ExU Launcelot. 

Will you prepare you for this masque to-night ? 
I am provided of a torch-bearer. 



28 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Salar. Ay, marry, I '11 be gone about it straight. 25 

Solan. And so will I. 

Lor. Meet me and Gratiano. 

At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence. 

Salar. 'T is good we do so. 

\_Exeunt Salarino and Salanio. 

Gra. Was not that letter from fair Jessica ? 

Lor. I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed 30 
How I shall take her from her father's house, 
What gold and jewels she is furnished with. 
What page's suit she hath in readiness. 
If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven, 
It will be for his gentle daughter's sake : 35 

And never dare misfortune cross her foot, 
Unless she do it under this excuse. 
That she is issue to a faithless Jew. 
Come, go with me ; peruse this as thou goest : 
Pair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer. \^Exeunt. 40 

Scene Y. The same. Before Shylock's house. 
Enter Shylock and Lau^tgelot. 

Shy. Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, 
The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio : — 
What, Jessica ! — thou shalt not gormandize. 
As thou hast done with me : — What, Jessica! — 
And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out ; — 5 

Why, Jessica, I say ! 

Lau7i. Why, Jessica ! 

Shy. Who bids thee call ? I do not bid thee call. 

Laun. Your worship was wont to tell me that I could 
do nothing without bidding. 



ACT II. SCENE V. 29 



Enter Jessica. 

Jes. Call you ? what is your will ? 10 

Shy. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica : 
There are my keys. But wherefore should I go ? 
I am not bid for love ; they flatter me : 
But yet I '11 go in hate, to feed upon 
The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl, 15 

Look to my house. I am right loath to go : 
There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest, 
For I did dream of money-bags to-night. 

Laun. I beseech you, sir, go : my young master doth 
expect your reproach. 20 

iShy. So do I his. 

Laun. An they have conspired together, I will not 
say you shall see a masque ; but if you do, then it was not 
for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday 
last at six o'clock i' the morning, falling out that year on 
Ash-Wednesday was four year, in the afternoon. 27 

Shy. What, are there masques ? Hear you me, 
Jessica : 
Lock up my doors ; and when you hear the drum 
And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife, 30 

Clamber not you up to the casements then, 
Nor thrust your head into the public street 
To gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces. 
But stop my house's ears, I mean my casements : 
Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter 35 

My sober house. By Jacob's staff, I swear, 
I have no mind of feasting forth to-night : 
But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah ; 
Say I. will come. 



30 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Laun. I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at 
window, for all this ; 41 

There will come a Christian by. 
Will be worth a Jewess' eye. \^Exit. 

Shy. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha ? 

Jes. His words were, " Farewell mistress ; " nothing 
else. 45 

Shy. The patch is kind enough but a huge feeder ; 
Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day 
More than the wild-cat : drones hive not with me ; 
Therefore I part with him, and part with him 
To one that I would have him help to waste 50 

His borrowed purse. V/ell, Jessica, go in : 
Perhaps I will return immediately : 
Do as I bid you ; shut doors after you : 
Fast bind, fast find ; 
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind. [^Exit. 55 

Jes. Farewell ; and if my fortune be not crost, 
I have a father, you a daughter, lost. [Exit. 

Scene YI. The same. 
Enter Geatiano and Salarino, masqued. 

Ova. This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo 
Desired us to make stand. 

Salar. His hour is almost past. . 

Gra. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour. 
For lovers ever run before the clock. 

Salar. 0, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly 5 

To seal love's bonds new-made, than they are wont 
To keep obliged faith unforf eited ! 

Gra. That ever holds : who riseth from a feast 



ACT II. SCENE VI. 31 

With that keen appetite that he sits down ? 

Where is the horse that doth untread again 10 

His tedious measures with the unbated fire 

That he did pace them first ? All things that are, 

Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed. 

How like a younker or a prodigal 

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, 15 

Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind ! 

How like the prodigal doth she return, 

With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails. 

Lean, rent and beggared by the strumpet wind ! 

Solar. Here comes Lorenzo : more of this hereafter. 20 

Enter Lorenzo. 
Lor. Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode ; 
Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait : 
When you shall please to play the thieves for wives, 
I '11 watch as long for you then. Approach ; 
Here dwells my father Jew. Ho ! who 's within ? 25 

Enter Jessica, above, in boy's clothes. 

Jes. Who are you ? Tell me, for more certainty. 
Albeit I '11 swear that I do know your tongue. 

Lor. Lorenzo, and thy love. 

Jes. Lorenzo, certain, and my love indeed. 
For who love I so much ? And now who knows 30 

But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours ? 

Lor. Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou 
art. 

Jes. Here, catch this casket ; it is worth the pains. 
I am glad 't is night, you do not look on me, 
For I am much ashamed of my exchange : 35 



32 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

But love is blind and lovers cannot see 
Tlie pretty follies that themselves commit ; 
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush 
To see me thus transformed to a boy. 

Lor. Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. 40 

Jes. What, must I hold a candle to my shames ? 
They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light. 
Why, 't is an office of discovery, love ; 
And I should be obscured. 

Jjor. So are you, sweet. 

Even in the lovely garnish of a boy. 45 

But come at once ; 

For the close night doth play the runaway. 
And we are stayed for at Bassanio's feast. 

Jes. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself 
With some more ducats, and be with you straight. 50 

]^Exit above. 

Qra. Now, by my hood, a Gentile and no Jew. 

Lor. Beshrew me but I love her heartily ; 
For she is wise, if I can judge of her, 
And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true. 
And true she is, as she hath proved herself, 55 

And therefore, like herself, wise, fair and true, 
Shall she be placed in my constant soul. 

Enter Jessica, below. 

What, art thou come ? On, gentlemen ; away ! 
Our masquing mates by this time for us stay. 

\_Exit with Jessica and Salarino. 



ACT II. SCENE VII. 33 

Enter Antonio. 

Ant. Who 's there ? 60 

Gra. Signior Antonio ! 

Ant. Fie, fie, Gratiano ! where are all the rest ? 
'T is nine o'clock : our friends all stay for you. 
No masque to-night : the wind is come about ; 
Bassanio presently will go aboard : 65 

I have sent twenty out to seek for you. 

Gra. I am glad on 't : I desire no more delight 
Than to be under sail and gone to-night. [Exeunt: 

Scene VII. Belmont. A room in Portia's house. 

Flourish of comets. Enter Portia, loith the Prince 

or Morocco, and their trains. 

For. Go draw aside the curtains and discover 
The several caskets to this noble prince. 
]S"ow make your choice. 

Mor. The first, of gold, who this inscription bears, 
"Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire; " 5 
The second, silver, which this promise carries, 
" Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves ; '^ 
This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt, 
"Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath." 
How shall I know if I do choose the right ? lo 

Por. The one of them contains my picture, prince : 
If you choose that, then I am yours withal. 

Mor. Some god direct my judgement ! Let me see ; 
I will survey the inscriptions back again. 
What says this leaden casket ? 15 

"Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath." 
Must give : for what ? for lead ? hazard for lead ? 
This casket threatens. Men that hazard all 



34 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Do it in hope of fair advantages : 

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross ; 20 

I ^11 then nor give nor hazard aught for lead. 

What says the silver with her virgin hue ? 

" Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves." 

As much as he deserves ! Pause there, Morocco, 

And weigh thy value with an even hand : 25 

If thou be'st rated by thy estimation, 

Thou dost deserve enough ; and yet enough 

'May not extend so far as to the lady : 

And yet to be afeard of my deserving 

Were but a weak disabling of myself. 30 

As much as I deserve ! Why, that 's the lady : 

I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes. 

In graces and in qualities of breeding ; 

But more than these, in love I do deserve. 

What if I strayed no further, but chose here ? 35 

Let ^s see once more this saying graved in gold ; - 

" Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire." 

Why, that 's the lady ; all the world desires her ; 

Prom the four corners of the earth they come, 

To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing saint : 40 

The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds 

Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now 

For princes to come view fair Portia : 

The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head 

Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar 45 

To stop the foreign spirits, but they come, 

As o'er a brook, to see fair Portia. 

One of these three contains her heavenly picture. 

Is 't like that lead contains her ? 'T were damnation 

To think so base a thought : it were too gross 50 



ACT II. SCENE VII. 35 

To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave. 

Or shall I think in silver she 's immured, 

Being ten times undervalued to tried gold ? 

sinful thought ! Never so rich a gem 

Was set in worse than gold. They have in England 55 

A coin that bears the figure of an angel 

Stamped in gold, but that 's insculped upon ; 

But here an angel in a golden bed 

Lies all within. Deliver me the key : 

Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may ! 60 

Por. There, take it, prince ; and if my form lie there, 
Then I am yours. [i?e unlocks the golden casket. 

Mor. hell ! what have we here ? 

A carrion Death, within whose empty eye 
There is a written scroll ! I '11 read the writing. 

\_Beads~\ All that glisters is not gold ; 65 

Often have you heard that told : 
Many a man his life hath sold 
But my outside to behold : 
Gilded tombs do worms infold. 
Had you been as wise as bold, 70 

Young in limbs, in judgement old, 
Your answer had not been inscrolled : 
Fare you well ; your suit is cold. 

Cold, indeed ; and labor lost : 

Then, farewell, heat, and welcome, frost ! 75 

Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart 
To take a tedious leave : thus losers part. 

\_Exit ivitJi Jiis train. Flourish of cornets. 

Por. A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go. 
Let all of his complexion choose me so. [Exeunt. 



36 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Scene VIII. Venice. A street. 
Enter Salakino and Salanio. 

Salar. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail : 
With him is Gratiano gone along ; 
And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not. 

Sedan. The villain Jew with outcries raised the 
duke, 
Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. 5 

Salar. He came too late, the ship was under sail : 
But there the duke was given to understand 
That in a gondola were seen together 
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica : 

Besides, Antonio certified the duke 10 

They were not with Bassanio in his ship. 

Salan. I never heard a passion so confused. 
So strange, outrageous, and so variable. 
As the dog Jew did utter in the streets : 
" My daughter ! O my ducats ! my daughter ! 15 

Fled with a Christian ! my Christian ducats ! 
Justice ! the law ! my ducats, and my daughter ! 
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, 
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter ! 
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones, 20 
Stolen by my daughter ! Justice ! find the girl ; 
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats." 

Salar. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him. 
Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats. 

Salan. Let good Antonio look he keep his day, 25 

Or he shall pay for this. 

Salar. Marry, well remembered. 



ACT II. -SCENE VIII. 37 

I reasoned with a Frencliinaii yesterday, 

Who told me, in the narrow seas that part 

The French and English, there miscarried 

A vessel of our country richly fraught : 30 

I thought upon Antonio when he told me ; 

And wished in silence that it were not his. 

Solan. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear ; 
Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. 

Solar. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. 35 
I saw Bassanio and Antonio part : 
Bassanio told him he would make some speed 
Of his return : he answered, " Do not so ; 
Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, 
But stay the very riping of the time ; 40 

And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me, 
Let it not enter in your mind of love : 
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts 
To courtship and such fair ostents of love 
As shall conveniently become you there : " 45 

And even there, his eye being big with tears. 
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, 
And with affection wondrous sensible 
He wrung Bassanio's hand ; and so they parted. 

Solan. I think he only loves the world for him. 50 
I pray thee, let us go and find him out 
And quicken his embraced heaviness 
With some delight or other. 

Solar. Do we so. [Exeunt. 



38 THE MEBCHANT' OF VENICE. 

Scene IX. Belmont. A room in Portia's house. 

Enter Nekissa with a Servitor. 

iVer. Quick, quick, I pray thee; draw the curtain 
straight : 
The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath, 
And conies to his election presently. 

Flourish of cornets. Enter the Prince of Arragon, 
Portia, and their trains. 

Por. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince : 
If you choose that wherein I am contained, 5 

Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized : 
But if you fail, without more speech, my lord. 
You must be gone from hence immediately. 

Ar. I -am enjoined by oath to observe three things : 
First, never to unfold to any one 10 

Which casket 't was I chose : next, if I fail 
Of the right casket, never in my life 
To woo a maid in way of marriage : 
Lastly, 

If I do fail in fortune of my choice, 15 

Immediately to leave you and be gone. 

Por. To these injunctions every one doth swear 
That comes to hazard for my worthless self. 

Ar. And so have I addressed me. Fortune now 
To my heart's hope ! Gold ; silver ; and base lead. 20 
" Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath." 
You shall look fairer, ere I give or hazard. 
What says the golden chest ? ha ! let me see : 
" Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire." 



ACT II. SCENE IX. 39 

What many men desire ! that " many '' may be meant 25 

By the fool multitude, that choose by show, 

Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach ; 

Which pries not to the interior, but, like the martlet, 

Builds in the weather on the outward wall. 

Even in the force and road of casualty. 30 

I will not choose what many men desire. 

Because I will not jump with common spirits 

And rank me with the barbarous multitudes. 

Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house ; 

Tell me once more what title thou dost bear : 35 

" Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves : " 

And well said too ; for who shall go about 

To cozen fortune and be honorable 

Without the stamp of merit ? Let none presume 

To wear an undeserved dignity. 40 

0, that estates, degrees and offices 

Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor 

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer ! 

How many then should cover that stand bare ! 

How many be commanded that command ! 45 

How much low peasantry would then be gleaned 

From the true seed of honor ! and how much honor 

Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times 

To be new varnished ! Well, but to my choice : 

" Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves." 50 

I will assume desert. Give me a key for this. 

And instantly unlock my fortunes here. 

[He opens the silver casket. 

For. Too long a pause for that which you find there. 

Ar. What 's here ? the portrait of a blinking idiot, 
Presenting me a schedule ! I will read it. 65 



40 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

How much unlike art tliou to Portia ! 

How much unlike my hopes and my deservings ! 

"Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves." 

Did I deserve no more than a fool's head ? 

Is that my prize ? are my deserts no better ? 60 

Por. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices 
And of opposed natures. 

At. What is here ? 

[Reads] The fire seven times tried this : 

Seven times tried that judgement is, 

That did never choose amiss. 65 

Some there be that shadows kiss ; 

Such have but a shadow's bliss : 

There be fools alive, I wis, 

Silvered o'er ; and so was this. 

Take what wife you will to bed, 70 

I will ever be your head : 

So be gone : you are sped. 

Still more fool I shall appear 

By the time I linger here : 

With one fool's head I came to woo, 75 

But I go away with two. 

Sweet, adieu. I '11 keep my oath, 

Patiently to bear my wroth. 

\_Exeunt Arragon and train. 
Por. Thus hath the candle singed the moth. 
O, these deliberate fools ! when they do choose, 80 

They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. 

Ner. The ancient saying is no heresy, 
Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. 
Por. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa. 



ACT III. SCENE L 41 

Enter a Servant. 

Serv. Where is my lady ? 

Por. Here : what would my lord ? 85 

■Serv. Madam, there is alighted at your gate 
A young Venetian, one that comes before 
To signify the approaching of his lord ; 
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets. 
To wit, besides commends and courteous breath, 90 

Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen 
So likely an ambassador of love : 
A day in April never came so sweet. 
To show how costly summer was at hand, 
' As this f ore-spurrer comes before his lord. 95 

Po7\ No more, I pray thee : I am half afeared 
Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee. 
Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him. 
Come, come, Nerissa ; for I long to see 
Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly. 100 

JSfer. Bassanio, lord Love, if thy will it be ! 

[^Exeujit. 

ACT III. 

Scene I. Venice. A street. 
Enter Salanio and Salarino. 
Solan. Now, what news on the Rialto ? 
Sdlar. Why, yet it lives there unchecked that An- 
tonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow 
seas ; the Goodwins, I think they call the place ; a very 
dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcases of many a 
tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be 
an honest woman of her word. 8 



42 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Solan. I would slie were as lying a gossip in that as 
ever knapped ginger or made her neighbors believe she 
wept for the death of a third husband. But it is true, 
without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain high- 
way of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest Antonio, 
— that I had a title good enough to keep his name 
company ! — 16 

Scdar. Come, the full stop. 

Salayi. Ha ! what sayest thou ? Why, the end is, he 
hath lost a ship. 

Salar. I would it might prove the end of his losses. 

Solan. Let me say "amen" betimes, lest the devil 
cross my prayer, for here he conies in the likeness of a 
Jew. 24 

Enter Shylock. 

How now, Shylock ! what news among the merchants ? 

Shy. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of 
my daughter's flight. 

Solar. That 's certain : I, for my part, knew the tailor 
that made the wings she flew withal. 30 

Solan. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird 
was fledged ; and then it is the complexion of them all 
to leave the dam. 

Shy. She is damned for it. 

Solar. That 's certain, if the devil may be her judge. 35 

Shy. My own flesh and blood to rebel ! 

Sola7i. Out upon it, old carrion ! 

Shy. I say, my daughter is my flesh and blood. 40 

Solar. There is more difference between thy flesh and 
hers than between jet and ivory; more between your 
bloods than there is between red wine and rhenish. But 
tell us, do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss 
at sea or no ? 45 



f7 

ACT III. SCENE I. 43 

Shy. There I have another bad match : a bankrupt, a 
prodigal, who dare scarce show his head on the Kialto ; a 
beggar, that was used to come so smug upon the mart ; 
let him look to his bond : he was wont to call me usurer ; 
let him look to his bond : he was wont to lend money for 
a Christian courtesy ; let him look to his bond. 52 

Solar. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not 
take his flesh : what 's that good for ? 

Shy. ^ To bait fish withal : if it will feed nothing else, 
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and 
hindered me half a million ; laughed at my losses, mocked 
at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, 
cooled my friends, heated mine enemies ; and what 's his 
reason ? I a.m a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes ? hath not 
a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, pas- 
sions ? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weap- 
ons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same 
means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and sum- 
mer, as a Christian is ? If you prick us, do we not bleed ? 
if you tickle us, do we not laugh ? if you poison us, do we 
not die ? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ? If 
we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. 
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility ? Ee- 
venge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his suf- 
ferance be by Christian example ? Why, revenge. The 
villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard 
but I will better the instruction. 76 

Enter a Servant. 

Serv. G-entlemen, my master Antonio is at his house 
and desires to speak with you both. 

Solar. We have been up and down to seek him. 



44 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Enter Tubal. 

Solan. Here conies another of the tribe : a third can- 
not be matched, unless the devil himself turn Jew. 81 
\_Exeunt Salanio, Salarino and Servant. 

Shy. How now, Tubal! what news from Genoa? hast 
thou found my daughter ? 

Tub. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot 
find her. 86 

Shy. Why, there, there, there, there ! a diamond gone, 
cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort ! The curse 
never fell upon our nation till now ; I never felt it till 
now: two thousand ducats in that; and other precious, 
precious jewels. I would my daughter were dead at my 
foot, and the jewels in her ear ! would she were hearsed 
at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of 
them ? Why, so : and I know not what 's spent in the 
search : why, thou loss upon loss ! the thief gone with so 
much, and so much to find the thief ; and no satisfaction, 
no revenge : nor no ill luck stirring but what lights on 
my shoulders ; no sighs but of my breathing ; no tears 
but of my shedding. loi 

Tub. Yes, other men have ill luck too : Antonio, as I 
heard in Genoa, — 

Shy. What, what, what ? ill luck, ill luck ? 104 

Tub. Hath an argosy cast away, coming from Tripolis. 

Shy. I thank God, I thank God. Is 't true, is 't true ? 

Tub. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the 
wreck. llO 

Shy. I thank thee, good Tubal : good news, good news ! 
ha, ha ! where ? in Genoa ? 

Tub. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, in 
one night fourscore ducats. 114 



ACT III. SCENE 11. 45 

Shy. Thou stickest a dagger in me : I shall never see 
my gold again : fourscore ducats at a sitting ! fourscore 
ducats ! 117 

Tub. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my 
company to Venice, that swear he cannot choose but break. 

Shy. I am very glad of it : I '11 plague him ; I '11 tort- 
ure him : I am glad of it. 122 

Tub. One of them showed me a ring that he had of 
your daughter for a monkey. 

Shy. Out upon her ! Thou torturest me, Tubal : it 
was my turquoise ; I had it of Leah when I was a 
bachelor : I would not have given it for a wilderness of 
monkeys. 128 

Tub. But Antonio is certainly undone. 

Shy. ISTay, that 's true, that 's very true. Go, Tubal, 
fee me an officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I 
will have the heart of him, if he forfeit ; for, were he out 
of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will. Go, go, 
Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue ; go, good Tubal ; 
at our synagogue, Tubal. \^Exeunt. 

Scene II. Belmont. A room in Portia's house. 

Enter Bassanio, Portia, Gratiano, Nerissa, aiid 
Attendants. 

Por. I pray you, tarry : pause a day or two 
Before you hazard ; for, in choosing wrong, 
I lose your company : therefore forbear awhile. 
There 's something tells me, but it is not love, 
I would not lose you ; and you know yourself. 
Hate counsels not in such a quality. 
But lest you should not understand me well, — 



46 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought, — 

I would detain you here some month or two 

Before you venture for me. I could teach you 10 

How to choose right, but I am then forsworn ; 

So will I never be : so may you miss me ; 

But if you do, you '11 make me wish a sin, 

That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes, 

They have o'erlooked me and divided me 5 15 

One half of me is yours, the other half yours. 

Mine own, I would say ; but if mine, then yours. 

And so all yours. 0, these naughty times 

Put bars between the owners and their rights ! 

And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, 20 

Let fortune go to hell for it, not I. 

I speak too long ; but 't is to peize the time, 

To eke it and to draw it out in length. 

To stay you from election. 

Bass. Let me choose ; 

For as I am, I live upon the rack. 25 

Por. Upon the rack, Bassanio ! then confess 
What treason there is mingled with your love. 

Bass. ISTone but that ugly treason of mistrust. 
Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love : 
There may as well be amity and life 30 

'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love. 

Por. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, 
Where men enforced do speak anything. 

Bass. Promise me life, and I '11 confess the truth. 

Por. Well then, confess and live. 

Bass. '' Confess " and ^^love " 

Had been the very sum of my confession : 3G 

happy torment, when my torturer 



ACT III. SCENE II. 47 

Doth teach me answers for deliverance ! 
But let me to my fortune and the caskets. 

Pot. Away, then ! I am locked in one of them : 40 
If you do love me, you will find me out. 
ISTerissa and the rest, stand all aloof. 
Let music sound while he doth make his choice ; 
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end. 
Fading in music : that the comparison 45 

May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream 
And watery death-bed for him. He may win ; 
And what is music then ? Then music is 
Even as the flourish when true subjects bow 
To a new-crowned monarch : such it is 50 

As are those dulcet sounds in break of day 
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear 
And summon him to marriage. Now he goes. 
With no less presence, but with much more love. 
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem 55 

The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy 
To the sea-monster : I stand for sacrifice ; 
The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives, 
With bleared visages, come forth to view 
The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules ! 60 

Live thou, I live : with much much more dismay 
I view the fight than thou that makest the fray. 

Music, whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself. 

Song. 
Tell me where is fancy bred. 
Or in the heart or in the head ? 
How begot, how nourished ? 65 

Keply, reply. 



48 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

It is engendered in the eyes, 
With gazing fed ; and fancy dies 
In the cradle where it lies. 

Let us all ring fancy's knell : 70 

I '11 begin it, — Ding, dong, bell. 
All. Ding, dong, bell. 

Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves : 
The world is still deceived with ornament. 
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt 75 

But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, 
Obscures the show of evil ? In religion. 
What damned error, but some sober brow 
Will bless it and approve it with a text, 
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament ? 80 

There is no vice so simple but assumes 
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts : 
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false 
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins 
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, 85 

Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk ; 
And these assume but valor's excrement 
To render them redoubted ! Look on beauty. 
And you shall see 't is purchased by the weight ; 
Which therein works a miracle in nature, 90 

Making them lightest that wear most of it : 
So are those crisped snaky golden locks 
Which make such wanton gambols with the wind. 
Upon supposed fairness, often known 
To be the dowry of a second head, 95 

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre. 
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore 
To a most dangerous sea 5 the beauteous scarf 



ACT III. SCENE II. 49 

Veiling an Indian beauty ; in a Avord, 

The seeming truth which cunning times put on 100 

To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold, 

Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee ; 

'Not none of thee, thou pale and common drudge 

'Tween man and man : but thou, thou meagre lead. 

Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught, 105 

Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence ; 

And here choose I : joy be the consequence ! 

Por. [^Aside'] How all the other passions fleet to air. 
As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair. 
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy ! no 

love. 

Be moderate ; allay thy ecstasy ; 

In measure rain thy jOy; scant this excess. 

1 feel too much thy blessing : make it less. 
For fear I surfeit. 

Bass. What find I here ? 115 

\_OiJening the leaden casket. 
Fair Portia's counterfeit ! What demi-god 
Hath come so near creation ? Move these eyes ? 
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine. 
Seem they in motion ? Here are severed lips, 
Parted with sugar breath : so sweet a bar 120 

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs 
The painter plays the spider and hath woven 
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men , 

Faster than gnats in cobwebs : but her eyes, — 
How could he see to do them ? having made one, 12s 

Methinks it should have power to steal both his 
And leave itself unfurnished. Yet look, how far 
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow 



50 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

In underprizing it, so far this shadow 

Doth limp behind the substance. Here 's the scroll, 130 

The continent and summary of my fortune. 

^Beads^ You that choose not by the view, 
Chance as fair and choose as true ! 
Since this fortune falls to you. 
Be content and seek no new. 135 

If you be well pleased with this 
And hold your fortune for your bliss, 
Turn you where your lady is 
And claim her with a loving kiss. 

A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave ; 140 

I come by note, to give and to receive. 

Like one of two contending in a prize, 

That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes. 

Hearing applause and universal shout. 

Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt 145 

Whether those peals of praise be his or no ; 

So, thrice-fair lady, stand I, even so ; 

As doubtful whether what I see be true, 

Until confirmed, signed, ratified by you. 

For. You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, 150 
Such as I am : though for myself alone 
I would not be ambitious in my wish. 
To wish myself much better ; yet, for you 
I would be trebled twenty times myself ; 
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times 155 

More rich ; 

That only to stand high in your account, 
I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends. 
Exceed account ; but the full sum of me 



ACT III. SCENE 11. 51 

Is sum of something, which, to term in gross, 160 

Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpractised ; 

Happy in this, she is not yet so old 

But she may learn ; happier than this, 

She is not bred so dull but she can learn ; 

Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit 165 

Commits itself to yours to be directed, 

As from her lord, her governor, her king. 

Myself and what is mine to you and yours 

Is now converted : but now I was the lord 

Of this fair mansion, master of my servants, 170 

Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now, 

This house, these servants and this same myself 

Are yours, my lord : I give them with this ring ; 

Which when you part from, lose, or give away. 

Let it presage the ruin of your love 175 

And be my vantage to exclaim on you. 

Bass. Madam, you have bereft me of all words ; 
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins ; 
And there is such confusion in my powers. 
As, after some oration fairly spoke 180 

By a beloved prince, there doth appear 
Among the buzzing pleased multitude ; 
Where every something, being blent together, 
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy. 
Expressed and not expressed. But when this ring 185 
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence : 
0, then be bold to say Bassanio 's dead ! 

JSfer. My lord and lady, it is now our time. 
That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper, 
To cry, good joy : good joy, my lord and lady ! 190 

Gra. My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady, 



52 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

1 wish you all tlie joy that you can wish ; 

For I am sure you can wish none from me : 

And when your honors mean to solemnize 

The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you, 195 

Even at that time I may be married too. 

Bass. With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife. 

Gra. I thank your lordship, you have got me one. 
My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours : 
You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid ; 200 

You loved, I loved for intermission. 
No more pertains to me, my lord, than you. 
Your fortune stood upon the casket there. 
And so did mine too, as the matter falls •, 
For wooing here until I sweat again, 205 

And swearing till my very roof was dry 
With oaths of love, at last, if promise last, 
I got a promise of this fair one here 
To have her love, provided that your fortune 
Achieved her mistress. 

Por. Is this true, Nerissa ? 2io 

iVer. Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal. 

Bass. And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith ? 

Gra. Yes, faith, my lord. 

Bass. Our feast shall be much honored in your mar- 
riage. 215 

Gra. But who comes here ? Lorenzo and his infidel ? 
What, and my old Venetian friend Salerio ? 222 

Enter Lorenzo, Jessica, and Salerio, a Messenger from 

Venice. 
Bass. Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither ; 
If that the youth of my new interest here 



ACT III. SCENE 11. 53 

Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave, 225 
I bid my very friends and countrymen, 
Sweet Portia, welcome. 

Por. So do I, my lord : 

They are entirely welcome. 

Lor. I thank your honor. For my x^art, my lord. 
My purpose was not to have seen you here ; 230 

But meeting with Salerio by the way, 
He did intreat me, past all saying nay, 
To come with him along. 

SaUr. I did, my lord ; 

And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio 
Commends him to you. [Gives Bassanio a letter. 

Bass. Ere I ope his letter, 235 

I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth. 

Saler. Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind ; 
Nor well, unless in mind : his letter there 
Will show you his estate. 

Gra. ISTerissa, cheer yon stranger ; bid her welcome. 
Your hand, Salerio : what 's the news from Venice ? 241 
How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio ? 
I know he will be glad of our success ; 
We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece. 

Saler. I would you had won the fleece that he hath 

lost. 245 

Por. There are some shrewd contents in yon same 
paper. 
That steals the color from Bassanio's cheek : 
Some dear friend dead ; else nothing in the world 
Could turn so much the constitution 

Of any constant man. What, worse and worse ! 250 

With leave, Bassanio ; I am half yourself. 



54 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

And I must freely have the half of anything 
That this same paper brings you. 

Bass. sweet Portia, 

Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words 
That ever blotted paper ! Gentle lady, 255 

When I did first impart my love to you, 
I freely told you, all the wealth I had 
Ean in my veins, I was a gentleman ; 
And then I told you true : and yet, dear lady. 
Eating myself at nothing, you shall see 260 

How much I was a braggart. When I told you 
My state was nothing, I should then have told you 
That I was worse than nothing ; for, indeed, 
I have engaged myself to a dear friend. 
Engaged my friend to his mere enemy, 265 

To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady ; 
The paper as the body of my friend. 
And every word in it a gaping wound 
Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio ? 
Have all his ventures failed ? A¥hat, not one hit ? 270 
From Tripolis, from Mexico and England, 
From Lisbon, Barbary and India ? 
And not one vessel 'scape the dreadful touch 
Of merchant-marring rocks ? 

Saler. Not one, my lord. 

Besides, it should appear, that if he had 275 

The present money to discharge the Jew, 
He would not take it. Never did I know 
A creature, that did bear the shape of man. 
So keen and greedy to confound a man : 
He plies the duke at morning and at night, 280 

And doth impeach the freedom of the state. 



ACT III. SCENE 11. 55 

If they deny him justice : twenty merchants, 

The duke himself, and the magnificoes 

Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him ; 

But none can drive him from the envious plea 285 

Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond. 

Jes. When I was with him I have heard him swear 
To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen. 
That he would rather have Antonio's flesh 
Than twenty times the value of the sum 290 

That he did owe him : and I know, my lord, 
If law, authority and power deny not. 
It will go hard with poor Antonio. 

Por. Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble ? 

Bass. The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, 295 
The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit 
In doing courtesies, and one in whom 
The ancient Roman honor more appears 
Than any that draws breath in Italy. 

Por. What sum owes he the Jew ? 300 

Bass. For me three thousand ducats. 

Por. What, no more ? 

Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond ; 
Double six thousand, and then treble that. 
Before a friend of this description 

Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. 305 

First go with me to church and call me wife, 
And then away to Venice to your friend ; 
For never shall you lie by Portia's side 
With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold 
To pay the petty debt twenty times over : 310 

When it is paid, bring your true friend along. 
My maid Nerissa and myself meantime 



56 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Will live as maids and widows. Come, away ! 

For you shall hence upon your wedding-day : 

Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer : 315 

Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear. 

But let me hear the letter of your friend. 

Bass. ]^Beads'] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all 
miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very 
low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit ; and since in paying 
it, it is impossible I should live, all debts are cleared be- 
tween you and I, if I might but see you at my death. 
Notwithstanding, use your pleasure : if your love do not 
persuade you to come, let not my letter. 324 

For. love, dispatch all business, and be gone ! 

Bass. Since I have your good leave to go away, 
I will make haste : but, till I come again, 

No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay, 

No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain. {^Exeunt. 

Scene III. Venice. A street. 
Enter Shylock, Salarino, Antonio, and Gaoler. 

Shy. Gaoler, look to him : tell not me of mercy ; 
This is the fool that lent out money gratis : 
Gaoler, look to him. 

Ant. Hear me yet, good Shylock. 

Shy. I '11 have my bond ; speak not against my bond : 
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. 5 

Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause ; 
But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs : 
The duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, 
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond 
To come abroad with him at his request. 10 



ACT III. SCENE III. 57 

Ant. I pray thee, hear me speak. 

jShi/. I '11 have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak : 
I '11 have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 
I '11 not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 15 

To Christian intercessors. Follow not ; 
I '11 have no speaking : I will have my bond. [Exit. 

Solar. It is the most impenetrable cur 
That ever kept with men. 

Ant. Let him alone : 

I '11 follow him no more with bootless prayers. 20 

He seeks my life ; his reason well I know : 
1 oft delivered from his forfeitures 
Many that have at times made moan to me ; 
Therefore he hates me. 

Solar. I am sure the duke 

Will never grant this forfeiture to hold. 25 

Ant. The duke cannot deny the course of law : 
For the commodity that strangers have 
With us in Venice, if it be denied. 
Will much impeach the justice of his state; 
Since that the trade and profit of the city 30 

Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go : 
These griefs and losses have so bated me, 
That I shall hardly s^^are a pound of flesh 
To-morrow to my bloody creditor. 

Well, gaoler, on. Pray G-od, Bassanio come 35 

To see me pay his debt, and then I care not ! 

[ExPMnt. 



58 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 



Scene IV. Belmont A room in Portia's house. 

Enter Portia, ISTerissa, Lorenzo, Jessica, and 
Balthasar. 

Lor. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, 
You have a noble and a true conceit 
Of god-like amity ; which appears most strongly 
In bearing thus the absence of your lord. 
But if you knew to whom you show this honor, 5 

How true a gentleman you send relief. 
How dear a lover of my lord your husband, 
I know you would be prouder of the work 
Than customary bounty can enforce you. 

Por. I never did repent for doing good, lo 

Nor shall not now : for in companions 
That do converse and waste the time together. 
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love. 
There must be needs a like proportion 
Of lineaments, of manners and of spirit ; 15 

Which makes me think that this Antonio, 
Being the bosom lover of my lord. 
Must needs be like my lord. If it be so. 
How little is the cost I have bestowed 
In purchasing the semblance of my soul 20 

From out the state of hellish misery ! 
This comes too near the praising of myself ; 
Therefore no more of it : hear other things. 
Lorenzo, I commit into jovly hands 

The husbandry and manage of my house 25 

Until my lord's return : for mine own part, 
I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 69 

To live in prayer and contemplation, 

Only attended by Nerissa here, 

Until her husband and my lord's return : 30 

There is a monastery two miles off ; 

And there will we abide. I do desire yoa 

Not to deny this imposition ; 

The which my love and some necessity 

Now lays upon you. 

Lo7\ Madam, with all my heart ; 35 

I shall obey you in all fair commands. 

Pot. My people do already know my mind. 
And will acknowledge you and Jessica 
"In place of Lord Bassanio and myself. 
And so farewell, till we shall meet again. 40 

Lor. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you ! 

Jes. I wish your ladyship all heart's content. 

Po)\ I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased 
To wish it back on you : fare you well, Jessica. 

[JExeunt Jessica and Lorenzo. 
Now, Balthasar, 45 

As I have ever found thee honest-true. 
So let me find thee still. Take this same letter, 
And use thou all the endeavor of a man 
In speed to Padua : see thou render this 
Into my cousin's hand. Doctor Bellario ; 50 

And, look, what notes and garments he doth give thee. 
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed 
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry 
Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words, 
But get thee gone : I shall be there before thee. 55 

Baltli. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. [^Exit. 

For. Come on, Nerissa ; I have work in hand 



60 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, 

That you yet know not of : we '11 see our husbands 
Before they think of us. 

Ner. Shall they see us ? 

Por. They shall, Nerissa ; but in such a habit, 60 

That they shall think we are accomplished 
With that we lack. I '11 hold thee any wager, 
When we are both accoutred like young men, 
I '11 prove the prettier fellow of the two. 
And wear my dagger with the braver grace, 65 

And speak between the change of man and boy 
With a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps 
Into a manly stride, and speak of frays 
Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies. 
How honorable ladies sought my love, 70 

Which I denying, they fell sick and died ; 
I could not do withal ; then I '11 repent. 
And wish, for all that, that I had not killed them ; 
And twenty of these puny lies I '11 tell. 
That men shall swear I have discontinued school 75 

Above a twelvemonth. I have within my mind 
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, 
Which I will practise. 

But come, I '11 tell thee all my whole device 81 

When I am in my coach, which stays for us 
At the park gate ; and therefore haste away, 
For we must measure twenty miles to-day. [Exeunt. 

Scene Y. The same. A garden. 

Enter Launcelot and Jessica. 

Laun. Yes, truly ; for, look you, the sins of the 
father are to be laid upon the children: therefore, I 



ACT III. SCENE V. 61 

promise ye, I fear you. I was always plain with you, 
and so now I speak my agitation of the matter : therefore 
be of good cheer, for truly I think you are damned. There 
is but one hope in it that can do you any good ; and that 
is but a kind of bastard hope neither. 

Jes. And what hope is that, I pray thee ? 10 

Laun. Marry, you may partly hope that you are not 
the Jew's daughter. 

Jes. That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed: so 
the sins of my mother should be visited upon me. 15 

Laun. Truly then I fear you are damned both by 
father and mother : thus when I shun Scylla, your father, 
-I fall into Charybdis, your mother ; well, you are gone 
both ways. 20 

Jes. I shall be saved by my husband ; he hath made 
me a Christian. 

Laun. Truly, the more to blame he : we were Chris- 
tians enow before ; e'en as many as could well live, one 
by another. This making of Christians will raise the 
price of hogs : if we grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall 
not shortly have a rasher on the coals for money. 

Enter Lorenzo. 

Jes. I '11 tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say : 
here he comes. 30 

Lor. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, 
if you thus get my wife into corners. 

Jes. Nay, you need not fear us, Lorenzo : Launcelot 
and I are out. He tells me flatly, there is no mercy for me 
in heaven, because T am a Jew's daughter : and he says, 
you are no good member of the commonwealth, for in con- 
verting Jews to Christians, you raise the price of pork. 39 



62 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Lor. I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn 
into silence, and discourse grow commendable in none 
only but parrots. Go in, sirrah ; bid them prepare for 
dinner. 52 

Laun. That is done, sir ; they have all stomachs. 

Lor. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you ! then 
bid them prepare dinner. 

Laun. That is done too, sir ; only " cover " is the 
word. 

Lor. Will you cover then, sir ? 

Laun. Not so, sir, neither ; I know my duty. 60 

Lor. Yet more quarrelling with occasion ! Wilt thou 
show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant ? I pray 
thee, understand a plain man in his plain meaning : go to 
thy fellows ; bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, 
and we will come in to dinner. 66 

Laun. For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for 
the meat, sir, it shall be covered ; for your coming in to 
dinner, sir, why, let it be as humors and conceits shall 
govern. [^LJxit. 

Lor. dear discretion, how his words are suited ! 70 
The fool hath planted in his memory 
An army of good words ; and I do know 
A many fools, that stand in better place. 
Garnished like him, that for a tricksy word 
Defy the matter. How cheer' st thou, Jessica ? 75 

And now, good sweet, say thy opinion. 
How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife ? 

Jes. Past all expressing. It is very meet 
The Lord Bassanio live an upright life ; 
For, having such a blessing in his lady, 80 

He finds the joys of heaven here on earth ; 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 63 

And if on earth he do not mean it, then 

In reason he should never come to heaven. 

Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match 

And on the wager lay two earthly women, 85 

And Portia one, there must be something else 

Pawned with the other, for the poor rude world 

Hath not her fellow. 

Zior. Even such a husband 

Hast thou of me as she is for a wife. 

Jes. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that. 90 

Lor. I will anon : first, let us go to dinner. 

Jes. Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach. 

Lor. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk ; 
Then, howsoe'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things 
I shall digest it. 

Jes. Well, I '11 set you forth. [Exeunt. 



ACT IV. 

» Scene I. Venice. A court of justice. 

Enter the Duke, the Magnificoes, Antonio, Bassanio, 
Gkatiano, Salerio, and others. 

Duke. What, is Antonio here ? 

Ant. Ready, so please your grace. 

Duke. I am sorry for thee : thou art come to answer 
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch 
Uncapable of pity, void and empty 5 

From any dram of mercy. 

Ayit. I have heard 

Your grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify 
His rigorous course ; but since he stands obdurate 



64 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

And that no lawful means can carry me 

Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose 10 

My patience to his fury, and am armed 

To suffer, with a quietness of spirit, 

The very tyranny and rage of his. 

Duke. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. 

Saler. He is ready at the door : he comes, my lord. 15 

Enter Shylock. 

Duke. Make room, and let him stand before our face. 
Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too. 
That thou but lead'st this fashion of thy malice 
To the last hour of act ; and then 't is thought 
Thou 'It show thy mercy and remorse more strange 20 
Than is thy strange a^Dparent cruelty ; 
And where thou now exact'st the penalty. 
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh, 
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture. 
But, touched with human gentleness and love, 25 

Forgive a moiety of the principal ; ^ 

G-lancing an eye of pity on his losses. 
That have of late so huddled on his back, 
Enow to press a royal merchant down 
And pluck commiseration of his state 30 

From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint. 
From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never trained 
To offices of tender courtesy. 
We all expect a gentle answer, Jew. 

Sliy. I have possessed your grace of what I purpose ; 35 
And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn 
To have the due and forfeit of my bond : 
If you deny it, let the danger light 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 65 

Upon your charter and your city's freedom. 

You '11 ask me, why I rather choose to have 40 

A weight of carrion flesh than to receive 

Three thousand ducats : I '11 not answer that : 

But, say, it is my humor : is it answered ? 

What if my house be troubled with a rat, 

And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats 45 

To have it baned ? What, are you answered yet ? 

Some men there are love not a gaping pig ; 

Some, that are mad if they behold a cat ; 

For affection, 50 

Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood 

Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer : 

As there is no firm reason to be rendered, 

Why he cannot abide a gaping pig ; 

Why he, a harmless necessary cat ; 55 

So can I give no reason, nor I will not, 

More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing 60 

I bear Antonio, that I follow thus 

A losing suit against him. Are you answered ? 

Bass. This is no answer, thou unfeeling man, 
To excuse the current of thy cruelty. 

Shy. I am not bound to please thee with my answers. 65 

Bass. Do all men kill the things they do not love ? 

Shy. Hates any man the thing he would not kill ? 

Bass. Every offence is not a hate at first. 

Shy. What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee 
twice ? 

Ant. I pray you, think you question with the Jew : 70 
You may as well go stand upon the beach 
And bid the main flood bate his usual height ; 
You may as well use question with the wolf 



66 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Why lie hath, made the ewe bleat for the lamb ; 

You may as well forbid the mountain pines 75 

To wag their high tops and to make no noise, 

When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven ; 

You may as well do any thing most hard, 

As seek to soften that — than which what 's harder ? — 

His Jewish heart : therefore, I do beseech you, 80 

Make no more offers, use no farther means. 

But with all brief and plain conveniency 

Let me have judgement and the Jew his will. 

Bass. For thy three thousand ducats here is six. 

/Shy. If every ducat in six thousand ducats 85 

Were in six parts and every part a ducat, 
I would not draw them ; I would have my bond. 

Duke. How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering 
none? 

Shy. What judgement shall I dread, doing no 
wrong ? 
You have among you many a purchased slave, 90 

Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules. 
You use in abject and in slavish parts. 
Because you bought them : shall I say to you. 
Let them be free, marry them to your heirs ? 
Why sweat they under burthens ? let their beds 95 

Be made as soft as yours and let their palates 
Be seasoned with such viands ? You will answer, 
"The slaves are ours: " so do I answer you: 
The pound of flesh, which I demand of him. 
Is dearly bought ; 't is mine and I will have it. lOO 

If you deny me, fie upon your law ! 
There is no force in the decrees of Venice. 
I stand for judgement : answer ; shall I have it ? 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 67 

Duke. Upon my power I may dismiss this court, 
Unless Bellario, a learned doctor, 105 

Whom I have sent for to determine this, 
Come here to-day. 

Saler. My lord, here stays without 

A messenger with letters from the doctor, 
New come from Padua. 

Duke. Bring us the letters ; call the messenger. no 

Bass. Good cheer, Antonio ! What, man, courage 
yet! 
The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones and all. 
Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood. 

A7it. I am a tainted wether of the flock, 
Meetest for death : the weakest kind of fruit 115 

Drops earliest to the ground ; and so let me : 
You cannot better be employed, Bassanio, 
Than to live still and write mine epitaph. 

Enter ISTerissa, dressed like a laivyer^s clerk. 

Duke. Came you from Padua, from Bellario ? 119 

Ner. From both, my lord. Bellario greets your grace. 

\_Presenting a letter. 

Bass. Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly ? 

Shy. To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there. 

Gra. Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, 
Thou makest thy knife keen ; but no metal can. 
No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness 125 
Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee ? 

Shy. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make. 

Ora. 0, be thou damned, inexecrable dog ! 
And for thy life let justice be accused. 
Thou almost makest me waver in my faith 130 



68 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
That souls of animals infuse themselves 
Into the trunks of men : thy currish spirit 
Governed a wolf, who, hanged for human slaughter, 
Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, 135 

And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallowed dam, 
Infused itself in thee ; for thy desires 
Are wolvish, bloody, starved and ravenous. 

Shy. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond, 
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud : 140 

Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall 
To cureless ruin. I stand here for law. 

Duke. This letter from Bellario doth commend 
A young and learned doctor to our court. 
Where is he ? 

Wer. He attendeth here hard by, 145 

To know your answer, whether you '11 admit him. 

Duke. With all my heart. Some three or four of 
you 
Go give him courteous conduct to this place. 
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario's letter. 149 

Clerk. \^Beads'] Your grace shall understand that at 
the receipt of your letter I am very sick: but in the in- 
stant that your messenger came, in loving visitation was 
with me a young doctor of Rome ; his name is Balthasar. 
I acquainted him with the cause in controversy between 
the Jew and Antonio the merchant : we turned o'er many 
books together : he is furnished with my opinion ; which, 
bettered with his own learning, the greatness whereof I 
cannot enough commend, comes with him, at my impor- 
tunity, to fill up your grace's request in my stead. I be- 
seech you, let his lack of years be no impediment to let 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 69 

liim lack a reverend estimation; for I never knew so 
young a body with so old a head. I leave him to your 
gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his 
commendation. 166 

Duke. You hear the learned Bellario, what he 
writes : 
And here, I take it, is the doctor come. 

Enter Portia, dressed like a doctor of laws. 
Give me your hand. Come you from old Bellario ? 

For. I did, my lord. 

Duke. You are welcome : take your place. 

Are you acquainted with the difference 171 

That holds this present question in the court ? 

For. I am informed throughly of the cause. 
Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew ? 

Ditke. Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth. 175 

For. Is your name Shylock ? 

jShy. Shylock is my name. 

For. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow ; 
Yet in such rule that the Venetian law 
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed. 
You stand within his danger, do you not ? 180 

Ant. Ay, so he says. 

For. Do you confess the bond ? 

Ant. I do. 

For. Then must the Jew be merciful. 

jShy. On what compulsion must I ? tell me that. 
or. The quality of mercy is not strained. 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 185 

Upon the place beneath : it is twice blest ; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes : 



70 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE 

'T is mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown ; 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 190 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 
It is an attribute to God himself ; 195 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
LWhen mercy seasons justicej Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this. 
That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 200 

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much 
To mitigate the justice of thy plea; 
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice 
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there. 205 

Shy. My deeds upon my head ! I crave the law. 
The penalty and forfeit of my bond. 

Por. Is he not able to discharge the money ? 

Bass. Yes, here I tender it for him in the court ; 
Yea, twice the sum : if that will not suffice, 210 

I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er. 
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart : 
If this will not suffice, it must appear 
That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you. 
Wrest once the law to your authority : 215 

To do a great right, do a little wrong. 
And curb this cruel devil of his will. 

Por. It must not be ; there is no power in Venice 
Can alter a decree established : 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 71 

'T will be recorded for a precedent, 220 

And many an error by the same example 
Will rush, into the state : it cannot be. 

Shy. A Daniel come to judgement ! yea, a Daniel ! 
wise young judge, how I do honor thee ! 

Por. I pray you, let me look upon the bond. 225 

Shy. Here 't is, most reverend doctor, here it is. 

Por. Shylock, there 's thrice thy money offered thee. 

Shy. An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven : 
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul ? 
No, not for Venice. 

Por. Why, this bond is forfeit ; 230 

And lawfully by this the Jew may claim 
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off 
Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful : 
Take thrice the money ; bid me tear the bond. 

Shy. When it is paid according to the tenor. 235 

It doth appear you are a worthy judge; 
You know the law, your exposition 
Hath been most sound : I charge you by the law. 
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar. 
Proceed to judgement : by my soul I swear 240 

There is no power in the tongue of man 
To alter me : I stay here on my bond. 

Ant. Most heartily I do beseech the court 
To give the judgement. 

Por. Why then, thus it is : 

You must prepare your bosom for his knife. 245 

Shy. noble judge ! excellent young man ! 

Por. For the intent and purpose of the law 
Hath full relation to the penalty. 
Which here appeareth due upon the bond. 



72 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Shy. 'T is very true : wise and upright judge ! 250 
How much more elder art thou than thy looks ! 

Por. Therefore lay bare your bosom. 

fShy. Ay, his breast : 

So says the bond : doth it not, noble judge ? 
" Nearest his heart : " those are the very words. 

Por. It is so. Are there balance here to weigh 255 
The flesh ? 

Shy. I have them ready. 

Por. Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, 
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death. 

Shy. Is it so nominated in the bond ? 

Por. It is not so expressed : but what of that ? 260 
'T were good you do so much for charity. 

Shy. I cannot find it ; 't is not in the bond. 

Por. You, merchant, have you any thing to say ? 

Ant. But little : I am armed and well prepared. 
Give me your hand, Bassanio : fare you well ! 265 

G-rieve not that I am fallen to this for you ; 
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind 
Than is her custom : it is still her use 
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth. 
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow 270 

An age of poverty ; from which lingering penance 
Of such misery doth she cut me off. 
Commend me to your honorable wife : 
Tell her the process of Antonio's end; 
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death; 275 

And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge 
Whether Bassanio had not once a love. 
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend, 
And he repents not that he pays your debt ; 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 73 

For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, 280 

I '11 pay it presently with all my heart. 

Bass. Antonio, I am married to a wife 
Which is as dear to me as life itself ; 
But life itself, my wife, and all the world. 
Are not with me esteemed above thy life : 285 

I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all 
Here to this devil, to deliver you. 

For. Your wife would give you little thanks for that. 
If she were by, to hear you make the offer. 

Gra. I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love : 290 

I would she were in heaven, so she could 
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew. 

Ner. 'T is well you offer it behind her back ; 
The wish would make else an unquiet house. 

SJiy. These be the Christian husbands. I have a 
daughter ; 295 

Would any of the stock of Barrabas 
Had been her husband rather than a Christian ! [^Aside. 
We trifle time : ' I pray thee, pursue sentence. 

Por. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine: 
The court awards it, and the law doth give it. 300 

Shy. Most rightful judge ! 

Por. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast: 
The law allows it, and the court awards it. 

/Shy. Most learned judge ! A sentence ! Come, pre- 
pare ! 

Por. Tarry a little ; there is something else. 305 

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood ; 
The words expressly are " a pound of flesh : " 
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh ; 
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 



74 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods 310 

Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate 
Unto the state of Venice. 

Gra. upright judge ! Mark, Jew : learned judge ! 

/Shy. Is that the law ? 

For. Thyself shalt see the act : 

For, as thou urgest justice, be assured 315 

Thou shalt have j astice, more than thou desirest. 

Gra. learned judge ! Mark, Jew: a learned judge ! 

Shy. I take this offer, then ; pay the bond thrice 
And let the Christian go. 

Bass. Here is the money. 

For. Soft ! 320 

The Jew shall have all justice ; soft ! no haste : 
He shall have nothing but the penalty. 

Gra. Jew ! an upright judge, a learned judge ! 

For. Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh. 
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more 325 

But just a pound of flesh : if thou cut'st more 
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much 
As makes it light or heavy in the substance. 
Or the division of the twentieth part 
Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn 330 

But in the estimation of a hair, 
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate. 

Gra. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew ! 
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip. 

For. "Why doth the Jew pause ? take thy forfeiture. 

jShy. Give me my principal, and let me go. 336 

Bass. I have it ready for thee ; here it is. 

For. He hath refused it in the open court : 
He shall have merely justice and his bond. 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 75 

G,ra. A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel ! 340 

I tliank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. 

Shy. Shall I not have barely my principal ? 

Por. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture. 
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew. 

Shy. Why, then the devil give him good of it ! 345 
I '11 stay no longer question. 

Por. Tarry, Jew: 

The law hath yet another hold on you. 
It is enacted in the laws of Venice, 
If it be proved against an alien 

That by direct or indirect attempts 350 

He seek the life of any citizen. 
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive 
Shall seize one half his goods ; the other half 
Comes to the privy coffer of the state ; 
And the offender's life lies in the mercy 355 

Of the duke only, 'gainst all other voice. 
In which predicament, I say, thou stand' st ; 
For it appears, by manifest proceeding. 
That indirectly and directly too 

Thou hast contrived against the very life 360 

Of the defendant ; and thou hast incurred 
The danger formerly by me rehearsed. 
Down therefore and beg mercy of the duke. 

Gra. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thy- 
self : 
And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, 365 

Thou hast not left the value of a cord ; 
Therefore thou must be hanged at the state's charge. 

Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits, 
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it : 



76 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's ; 370 

The other half comes to the general state, 
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine. 

Pot. Ay, for the state, not for Antonio. 

Shy. Nay, take my life and all ; pardon not that : 
You take my house when you do take the prop 375 

That doth sustain my house ; you take my life 
When you do take the means whereby I live. 

For. What mercy can you render him, Antonio ? 

Gra. A halter gratis ; nothing else, for God's sake. 

Ant. So please my lord the duke and all the court 
To quit the fine for one half of his goods, • 381 

I am content ; so he will let me have 
The other half in use, to render it. 
Upon his death, unto the gentleman 
That lately stole his daughter : 385 

Two things provided more, that, for this favor, 
He presently become a Christian ; 
The other, that he do record a gift. 
Here in the court, of all he dies possessed. 
Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter. 390 

Duke. He shall do this, or else I do recant 
The pardon that I late pronounced here. 

Por. Art thou contented, Jew ? what dost thou 
say? 

Shy. I am content. 

Por. Clerk, draw a deed of gift. 

Shy. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence ; 395 
I am not well : send the deed after me. 
And I will sign it. 

Duke. Get thee gone, but do it. 

Gra. In christening shalt thou have two godfathers : 



ACT IV. SCENE L 77 

Had I been judge, thon shonldst have had ten more, 
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font. 400 

[Exit Sliylock. 

Duke. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. 

Por. I humbly do desire your grace of pardon : 
I must away this night toward Padua, 
And it is meet I presently set forth. 

Duke. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not. 405 
Antonio, gratify this gentleman. 
For, in my mind, you are much bound to him. 

'[Exeunt Duke and Jiis troAn. 

Bass. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend 
Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted 
Of grievous penalties ; in lieu whereof, 410 

Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew, 
We freely cope your courteous pains withal. 

Ant. And stand indebted, over and above, 
In love and service to you evermore. 

Por. He is well paid that is well satisfied ; 415 

And I, delivering you, am satisfied 
And therein do account myself well paid : 
My mind was never yet more mercenary. 
I pray you, know me when we meet again : 
I wish you well, and so I take my leave. 420 

Bass. Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further : 
Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute, 
Not as a fee : grant me two things, I pray you, 
Not to deny me, and to pardon me. 

Por. You press me far, and therefore I will yield. 425 
[To Ant.^ Give me your gloves, I ^11 wear them for your 

sake ; 
[ To Bass.l And, for your love, I '11 take this ring from you : 



78 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

Do not draw back your hand ; I '11 take no more ; 
And you in love shall not deny me this. 

Bass. This ring, good sir, alas, it is a trifle ! 430 

I will not shame myself to give you this. 

Por. I will have nothing else but only this ; 
And now methinks I have a mind to it. 

Bass. There 's more depends on this than on the value. 
The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, 435 

And find it out by proclamation : 
Only for this, I pray you, pardon me. 

Por. I see, sir, you are liberal in offers : 
You taught me first to beg ; and now methinks 
You teach me how a beggar should be answered. 440 

Bass. Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife ; 
And when she put it on, she made me vow 
That I should neither sell nor give nor lose it. 

Por. That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts. 
An if your wife be not a mad-woman, 445 

And know how well I have deserved the ring. 
She would not hold out enemy forever. 
For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you ! 

[Exeunt Portia and Nerissa. 

Ant. My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring : 
Let his deservings and my love withal 450 

Be valued 'gainst your wife's commandment. 

Bass. Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him ; 
Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst, 
Unto Antonio's house : away ! make haste. 

[Exit Gratiano. 
Come, you and I will thither presently ; 455 

And in the morning early will we both 
Fly toward Belmont : come, Antonio. [Exeunt. 



ACT IV. SCENE 11. 79 

Scene II. The same. A street. 

Enter Portia and Nerissa. 

Por. Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed 
And let him sign it : we '11 away to-night 
And be a day before our husbands home : 
This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo. 

Enter Gratiano. 

Gra. Fair sir, you are well o'erta'en : 5 

My Lord Bassanio upon more advice 
Hath sent you here this ring, and doth entreat 
Your company at dinner. 

Por. That cannot be : 

His ring I do accept most thankfully : 
And so, I pray you, tell him: furthermore, lo 

I pray you, show my youth old Shylock's house. 

Gra. That will I do. 

Ner. Sir, I would s^^eak with you. 

\_Aside to Por.'] I '11 see if I can get my husband's ring. 
Which I did make him swear to keep forever. 

Por. [_Aside to Ner.] Thou mayst, I warrant. is 

We shall have old swearing 
That they did give the rings away to men; 
But we '11 outface them, and outswear them too. 
\_Aloud'\ Away ! make haste : thou know'st where I will 
tarry. 19 

Ner. Come, good sir, will you show me to this house ? 

[_Exeunt. 



80 THE MEBCHANT OF VENICE. 

ACT V. 

Scene I. Belmont. Avenue to Portia's house. 
Enter Lorenzo and Jessica. 

Lor. The moon shines bright: in such a night as 
this, 
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees 
And they did make no noise, in such a night 
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls 
And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents, 5 

Where Cressid lay that night. 

Jes. In such a night 

Did Thisbe fearfully o'ertrip the dew 
And saw the lion's shadow ere himself 
And ran dismayed away. 

Lor. In such a night 

Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 10 

Upon the wild sea banks and waft her love 
To come again to Carthage. 

Jes. In such a night 

Medea gathered the enchanted herbs 
That did renew old ^son. 

Lor. In such a night 

Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew 15 

And with an unthrift love did run from Venice 
As far as Belmont. 

Jes. In such a night 

Did young Lorenzo swear he loved her well. 
Stealing her soul with many vows of faith 
And ne'er a true one. 

Lor. In such a night 20 



ACT V. SCENE I. 81 

Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, 
Slander her love, and he forgave it her. 

Jes. I would out-night you, did nobody come ; 
But, hark, I hear the footing of a man. 

Enter Stephano. 

Lor. Who comes so fast in silence of the night ? 25 

Steph. A friend. 

Lor. A friend ! what friend ? your name, I pray 
you, friend ? 

Steph. Stephano is my name : and I bring word 
My mistress will before the break of day 
Be here at Belmont : she doth stray about 30 

By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays 
For happy wedlock hours. 

Lor. Who comes with her ? 

Steph. None but a holy hermit and her maid. 
1 pray you, is my master yet returned ? 

Lor. He is not, nor have we not heard from him. 35 
But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica, 
And ceremoniously let us prepare 
Some welcome for the mistress of the house. 

Enter Launcelot. 
Laun. Sola, sola ! wo ha, ho ! sola, sola ! 
Lor. Who calls ? 40 

Laun. Sola ! did you see Master Lorenzo ? Master 
Lorenzo, sola, sola! 

Lor. Leave hollaing, man : here. 

Laun. Sola ! where ? where ? 

Lor. Here. 45 

Laun. Tell him there 's a post come from my master. 



82 THE MEBCHANT OF VENICE. 

with. Ms horn full of good news : my master will be here 
ere morning. lExit 

Lor. Sweet sonl, let's in, and there expect their 
coming. 
And yet no matter : why should we go in ?• 50 

My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you, 
Within the house, your mistress is at hand ; 
And bring your music forth into the air. 

[Exit Stephano. 
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! 
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music 55 

Creep in our ears : soft stillness and the night 
Become the touches of sweet harmony. 
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven 
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold : 
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 60 

But in his motion like an angel sings. 
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins ; 
Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. 65 

Enter Musicians. 
Come, ho ! and wake Diana with a hymn : 
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear 
And draw her home with music. [Music. 

Jes. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. 

Lor. The reason is, your spirits are attentive : 70 

For do but note a wild and wanton herd, 
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts. 
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud, 
Which is the hot condition of their blood ; 



ACT V. SCENE I, 83 

If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, 75 

Or any air of music touch their ears, 

You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, 

Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze 

By the sweet power of music : therefore the poet 

Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods : 80 

Since nought so stockish, hard and full of rage, 

But music for the time doth change his nature. 

The man that hath no music in himself, 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds. 

Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils ; 85 

The motions of his spirit are dull as night 

And his affections dark as Erebus : 

Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. 

Enter Portia and Nerissa. 

Por. That light we see is burning in my hall. 
How far that little candle throws his beams ! 90 

So shines a good deed in a naughty world. 

Ner. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. 

Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less : 
A substitute shines brightly as a king 
Until a king be by, and then his state 95 

Empties itself, as doth an inland brook 
Into the main of waters. Music ! hark ! 

Ner. It is your music, madam, of the house. 

Por. Nothing is good, I see, without respect : 
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day. 100 

Ner. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam. 

Por. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark 
When neither is attended, and I think 
The nightingale, if she should sing by day. 



84 THE MEBCHANT OF VENICE. 

When every goose is cackling, would be thought 105 

No better a musician than the wren. 

How many things by season seasoned are 

To their right praise and true perfection ! 

Peace, ho ! the moon sleeps with Endymion 

And would not be awaked. \^Music ceases. 

Lor. That is the voice, no 

Or I am much deceived, of Portia. 

Por. He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo. 
By the bad voice. 

Lo7\ Dear lady, welcome home. 

Por. We have been praying for our husbands' healths, 
Which speed, we hope, the better for our words. 115 

Are they returned ? 

Lo7\ Madam, they are not yet ; 

But there is come a messenger before. 
To signify their coming. 

Por. Go in, Nerissa ; 

Give order to my servants that they take 
No note at all of our being absent hence ; 120 

Nor you, Lorenzo ; Jessica, nor you. [A tucket sounds. 

Lor. Your husband is at hand ; I hear his trumpet : 
We are no tell-tales, madam ; fear you not. 

Por. This night methinks is but the daylight sick ; 
It looks a little paler : 't is a day 125 

Such as the day is when the sun is hid. 

Enter Bassanio, Antonio, Gratiano, and their 
followers. 
Bass. We should hold day with the Antipodes, 
If you would walk in absence of the sun. 

Por. Let me give light, but let me not be light ; 



ACT V. SCENE I. 85 

For a light wife dotli make a heavy husband, 130 

And never be Bassanio so for me : 

But God sort all ! You are welcome home, my lord. 

Bass. I thank you, madam. Give welcome to my 
friend. 
This is the man, this is Antonio, 
To whom I am so infinitely bound. 135 

Por. You should in all sense be much bound to him. 
For, as I hear, he was much bound for you. 

Ant. No more than I am well acquitted of. 

Por. Sir, you are very welcome to our house : 
It must appear in other ways than words, MO 

Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy. 

Gra. [To JSfer.'] By yonder moon I swear you do me 
wrong ; 
In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk : 

Por. A quarrel, ho, already ! what's the matter ? 146 

Gra. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring 
That she did give me, whose posy was 
For all the world like cutler's poetry 
Upon a knife, " Love me, and leave me not." 150 

Ner. What talk you of the posy or the value ? 
You swore to me, when I did give it you. 
That you would wear it till your hour of death 
And that it should lie with you in your grave : 
Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths, 155 

You should have been respective and have kept it. 
Gave it a judge's clerk ! no, God 's my judge. 
The clerk will ne'er wear hair on 's face that had it. 

Gra. He will, an if he live to be a man. 

JSfer. Ay, if a woman live to be a man. 160 

Gra. Now, by this hand, I gave it to a youth. 



86 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy, 

No Mglier tlian thyself, the judge's clerk, 

A prating boy, that begged it as a fee : 

I could not for my heart deny it him. 165 

Po7\ You were to blame, I must be plain with you. 
To part so slightly with your wife's first gift ; 
A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger 
And so riveted with faith unto your flesh. 
I gave my love a ring and made him swear 170 

Never to part with it ; and here he stands ; 
I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it 
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth 
That the world masters. Now, in faith, G-ratiano, 
You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief : 175 

An 't were to me, I should be mad at it. 

Bass. l^Aside'] Why, I were best to cut my left hand 
off 
And swear I lost the ring defending it. 

Gra. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away 
Unto the judge that begged it and indeed 180 

Deserved it too ; and then the boy, his clerk, 
That took some pains in writing, he begged mine 
And neither man nor master would take aught 
But the two rings. 

Po)\ What ring gave you, my lord ? 

Not that, I hope, which you received of me. 185 

Bass. If I could add a lie unto a fault, 
I would deny it ; but you see my finger 
Hath not the ring upon it ; it is gone. 

For. Even so void is your false heart of truth. 

Bass. Sweet Portia, 192 

If you did know to whom I gave the ring, 



ACT V. SCENE I. 87 

If you did know for whom I gave the ring 

And would conceive for what I gave the ring 195 

And how unwillingly I left the ring, 

When nought would be accepted but the ring, 

You would abate the strength of your displeasure. 

Por. If you had known the virtue of the ring, 
Or half her worthiness that gave the ring, 200 

Or your own honor to contain the ring, 
You would not then have parted with the ring. 
What man is there so much unreasonable, 
If you had pleased to have defended it 
With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty 205 

To urge the thing held as a ceremony ? 
Nerissa teaches me what to believe : 
I '11 die for 't but some woman had the ring. 

' Bass. No, by my honor, madam, by my soul. 
No woman had it, but a civil doctor, 2io 

Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me 
And begged the ring ; the which I did deny him 
And suffered him to go displeased away ; 
Even he that did uphold the very life 
Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady ? 215 
I was enforced to send it after him ; 
I was beset with shame and courtesy ; 
My honor would not let ingratitude 
So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady ; 
For, by these blessed candles of the night, 220 

Had you been there, I think you would have begged 
The ring of me to give the worthy doctor. 

Por. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house : 
Since he hath got the jewel that I loved, 
And that which you did swear to keep for me, 225 



88 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 

I will become as liberal as you ; 

I '11 not deny him any thing I have. 

N'er. Nor I his clerk ; therefore be well advised 
How you do leave me to mine own protection. 235 

Gra. Well, do you so : let not me take him, then ; 
For if I do, I '11 mar the young clerk's pen. 

Ant. I am the unhappy subject of these quarrels. 

Por. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome notwith- 
standing. 

Bass. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong 240 

And, in the hearing of these many friends, 
I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes. 
Wherein I see myself — 

Por. Mark you but that ! 

In both my eyes he doubly sees himself ; 
In each eye, one : swear by your double self, 245 

And there 's an oath of credit. 

Bass. ^^J, but hear me : 

Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear 
I never more will break an oath with thee. 

Ant. I once did lend my body for his wealth ; 
Which, but for him that had your husband's ring, 250 
Had quite miscarried : I dare be bound again, 
My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord 
Will never more break faith advisedly. 

Por. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this 
And bid him keep it better than the other. 255 

Ant. Here Lord Bassanio ; swear to keep this ring. 

Bass. By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor ! 

Por. You are all amazed : 266 

Here is a letter ; read it at your leisure ; 
It comes from Padua, from Bellario : 



ACT V. SCENE I. 89 

There yoii shall find that Portia was the doctor, 

Nerissa there her clerk : Lorenzo here 270 

Shall witness I set forth as soon as you 

And even but now returned ; I have not yet 

Entered my house. Antonio, you are welcome, 

And I have better news in store for you 

Than you expect : unseal this letter soon ; 275 

There you shall find three of your argosies 

Are richly come to harbor suddenly : 

You shall not know by what strange accident 

I chanced on this letter. 

Ant. I am dumb. 

Bass. Were you the doctor and I knew you not ? 280 

Ant. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living ; 286 
For here I read for certain that my ships 
Are safely come to road. 

Pot. How now, Lorenzo ! 

My clerk hath some good comforts too for you. 

JSfer. Ay, and I '11 give them him without a fee. 290 
There do I give to you and Jessica, 
From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, 
After his death, of all he dies possessed of. 

Lor. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way 
Of starved people. 

Por. It is almost morning, 295 

And yet I am sure you are not satisfied 
Of these events at full. Let us go in ; 
And charge us there upon inter'gatories. 
And we will answer all things faithfully. 

Gra. Well, while I live I '11 fear no other thing 306 
So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. [Exeunt. 



A LIST OF THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA, WITH THE SCENES IN 
WHICH THEY APPEAR. 

Antonio I, 1, 3 ; II, 6 ; III, 3 ; IV, 1 ; V, 1. 

Salauino I, 1 ; II, 4, 6, 8 , III, 1, 3. 

Salanio I, 1 ; II, 3, 8 ; III, 1. 

Bassanio 1, 1, 3 ; II, 1 ; III, 2 ; IV, 1 ; V, 1. 

Lorenzo I, 1 ; II, 4, 6; III, 2, 4, 5 ; V, 1. 

Gratiano . . I, 1 ; II, 2, 4, 6 ; III, 2 ; IV, 1, 2 ; V, 1. 

Servant I, 2 ; II, 9 ; III, 1. 

Shylock I, 3; II, 5; III, 1,3; IV, 1. 

Morocco II, 1, 7. 

Launcelot II, 2, 3, 4, 5 ; III, 5 ; V, 1. 

Old Gobbo II, 2. 

Leonardo II, 2. 

Arragon II, 9. 

Tubal Ill, 1. 

MtrsiciAN Ill, 2. 

Salerio Ill, 2 ; IV, 1. 

Balthasar Ill, 4. 

DtJKE IV, 1. 

Stephano V, 1. 

Portia I, 2 ; II, 1, 7, 9 ; III, 2, 4 ; IV, 1, 2 ; V, 1. 

Nbrissa I, 2 ; II, 9 ; III, 2, 4 ; IV, 1,2; V, 1. 

Jessica II, 3, 6, 7 ; III, 2, 4, 5 ; V, 1. 

90 



NOTES. 

Shakespeare produced his plays and " poems " durmg a period 
of about twenty years, which is almost equally divided by the 
close of the 16th century. The Merchant of Venice may be 
assigned to the middle of the first half of this period, and is 
therefore to be considered as one of the poet's earlier, but not 
earliest, dramas. It had been preceded by nearly all his in- 
ferior comedies, and also by tlie Midsummer Mght's Dream. 
The inferior histories had abeady a]3peared, and with them also 
King John and Richard II. Romeo and Juliet belongs to 
nearly the same date as the Merchant of Venice. But all the 
greatest comedies, the greatest histories, and absolutely all the 
tragedies, Romeo and Juliet excepted, were yet to be written. 
. At this period of his career the poet has overcome the faults 
of his earliest work. He has finally settled the metric forms 
which he is to use during the course of his poetic activity. He 
has learned how to adapt plays to the stage so as to touch the 
imagination of spectators, and to produce perfect illusion as 
regards time and place. He has passed out of his apprentice- 
ship in the art of portraying character, — the art of creating 
collisions and reconciliations that grow out of the personalities 
of men and women. He has developed, though he is still to 
develop further, that wonderful diction which makes the term 
Shakespearian the most distinctly connotative of all the ej)ithets 
that have been coined from writers' names. 

The various stories that lie at the foundation of the Merchant 
of Venice had long existed in medieval fiction. Shakespeare 
recombined the elements of them, but invented next to nothing 
new in plot and fable. Nearly aU his plays are traceable to 
their sources. The sources of this comedy the student may 

91 



92 NOTES. 

read in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's Library or in Furness's Vari- 
orum edition of the play. 

The reader of Shakesjpeare must train his ear to the rhythm 
of the Shakespearian blank verse. Though tolerating a wide 
range of variation in the number and place of unaccented sylla- 
bles, this verse, nevertheless, filling, but not exceeding, the 
measure of the iambic pentameter, remains almost constantly 
true to its norm. Hence, it is essential, in reading, to acquire 
the habit of finding the scansion, so as not to lose hold of the 
rhythm and read the verse as if it were prose. The reader's ear 
should immediately detect the five accents, and the relation of 
these accents to the unaccented syllables. For each verse is a 
unit in itself, and even the most unstopped, or run-on verse, makes 
itself felt, in good reading, as having a beginning and an end. 

The various artifices by means of which the rhythm of lines 
is secured by the poet, such as elision and slurring of syllables, 
and the dividing of single syllables into two, the learner must, 
from the outset, observe and become familiar with. The end- 
ings -ion, -ian, -ean are sometimes, though by no means usually, 
to be read as making two syllables each ; and when this hap- 
pens, the latter of these two syllables comes to bear an accent. 
Thus ocean is to be spoken ocean in the one instance where the 
word occurs in this play, but elsewhere is much oftener a dissyl- 
lable. Thus, again, the word Christian is usually two syllables, 
but, in at least two cases in the play, is a trisyllable. In the 
names Portia, Antonio, Bassanio, Bellario, Padua, the last two 
vowels are sometimes to be pronounced separately, and some- 
times they are diphthongs. 

ACT 1. 

Scene 1. 

1-7. From this immediate demonstration of character and 
temperament in Antonio, what may we infer concerning the im- 
portance of his mental peculiarities as about to furnish a motive to 



ACT I. SCENE I. 93 

the play? May we predict of Antonio that he will always act con- 
sistently with the character of a shrewd and successful merchant ? 
3-4. Search in this and other plays for instances of similar 
multiplying of diverse expressions setting forth essentially the same 
idea. 

5, 7. The two lines contain three instances of the gerundial, 
ov prepositional^ infinitive, the preposition in one case being anom- 
alous. By all means master the distinction between the pure and 
the gerundial infinitive. In connection with ado, compare Ham- 
let ii, 2, 369 ; iv, 4, 44 ; Richard III. i, 3, 292. See also the gospel 
of Mark, v, 39, in the King James version. Then see if you think 
that the editors of the " Revised Version " have improved the pas- 
sage. 

6. want-wit. Find a compound similarly formed in each of 
the following passages : — M. N. Dream ii, 2, 77 ; Richard II. i, 1, 
160 ; W. Tale i, 2, 363 ; As You L. It iv, 1, 196 ; K. John ii, 1, 569. 
Describe these compounds, as to the parts of speech to which their 
elements belong, and the grammatical relation of these elements to 
each other. 

8-14. Analyze the diction of Salarino's speech with respect to 
its power to visualize his thought, and to make it appeal to our 
imagination. 

11. You will not appreciate the meaning of pageants without 
some acquaintance with the word as a technical term of the Tudor 
drama. In the Tempest, Act iv, the poet gives us what he him- 
self calls a pageayit. Read Bacon's Essay Of Masques and 
Triumphs. Look up the subject also in Chambers's Book of 
Days ; in J. Payne Collier's History of English Dramatic Poetry ; 
in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes ; in Besant's London. Among 
many other instances of the use of the word by Shakespeare, see 
especially L. L. Lost v, 1, 118 ; A. Y. L. It ii, 7, 138 ; Pericles v, 2, 
271. 

17. The reader of Shakespeare must expect often to find still 
used, as it is here, with the meaning ahvays. 

19. See the word road in two other senses. Much Ado v, 2, 33 ; 
Coriolanus iii, 1, 5. 

21. out of doubt. Think of expressions in which the same 



94 NOTES. 

combination of adverb and preposition is still current in the same 
sense. As we have in health and out of health, in fashion and out 
of fashion, so the earlier language had in doubt and out of doubt. 
Chaucer has out of doubt, as in Prol. to Canterbury Tales, 487 ; 
Knightes Tale, 283. 

23. when I thought. In what mode is this verb ? 

27. my wealthy Andrew. Whether Andrew, or Andrea, was 
a frequent name for Italian ships, and whether Shakespeare took it 
from some one of his sources, or invented it, cannot be ascertained. 

28. vailing : an interesting word, or rather three interesting 
words in one form. Distinguish their meanings as they appear in 
the following passages, and look up their etymologies : 1 Hen. VI. 
V, 3, 25; Pericles ii, 1, 157; Mer. of Ven. iii, 2, 99. In one of 
these words the spelling veil has become more common than vail, 
the form found in the older editions of Shakespeare and in the 
Bible of 1611. 

35. but even now worth this, And now worth nothing. 
The costly spices and silks which, until the ship struck, were 
his, now suddenly vanish from his possession, and for a moment 
he sees them weltering in the sea. Perhaps he accompanies the 
word " this " with a gesture, as if pointing to the dismal sight. 

50. by two-headed Janus. A collection of Shakespearian oath- 
forms, or phrases of asseveration, such as you may make in your 
reading, would throw interesting light on the manners of the poet's 
day. 

56. Not only in the play where he is a personage of prime im- 
portance, but in the following passages also, Nestor is mentioned : 
L. L. Lost iv, 3, 169; 3 Hen. VI. iii, 2, 188; Pericles iii, 1, 66; 
1 Hen. VI. ii, 5, 6. Prom these passages infer the character which 
Shakespeare ascribes to Nestor. 

60-68. Do Antonio and Bassanio show any objection to the 
departure of Salarino and Salanio ? How do you construe their 
speeches ? 

61. worthier. In what sense does Salarino use this word ? 
Consider the words worth, worthy, and worship, as they occur in 
the play, and see if they had not, to Shakespeare, a secondary 
meaning, or connotation, which to us they have lost. 



ACT I. SCENE 11. 95 

prevented. Does this word here merely mean hindered or 
thwarted? See J. Csesar iii, 1, 35; v, 1, 105; Hamlet ii, 2, 305; 
Psalms xxi, 3, and so often in the Bible. 

79. Let me play the fool. It would be a monstrous mistake 
to understand fool in its modern sense. Not until you have read 
As You Like It and Lear will you begin to understand the fool of 
the Elizabethan stage. 

82. with mortifying groans. Shakespeare nowhere uses mor- 
tify in its modern sense. See L. L. Lost i, 1, 28 ; Hen, V. i, 1, 26 ; 
J. Caesar ii, 1, 324 ; Macbeth v, 2, 6 ; Lear ii, 3, 15 ; M. Ado i, 3, 13. 

89. Do cream and mantle. See Tempest iv, 1, 182 ; Lear iii, 
4, 139. 

110. for this gear. See the phrase again ii, 2, 176. See also 
2 Hen. VL i, 4, 17 ; T. Andron. iv, 3, 52. 

, 111. From the peculiar metrical isolation of the couplet from 
the rest of the dialogue, what may we probably infer as to the 
character of Gratiano's speech ? 

Where does the normal movement of the dialogue recover itself, 
and in connection with what change of theme does this recovery 
take place ? 

141. his fellow of the self-same flight. Different arrows had 
different flights, and the archer had to pay heed to the flight of the 
arrow he chose. 

148. that self way. See Errors v, 1, 10 ; Richard II. i, 2, 23 ; 
T. Night i, 1, 39. Describe this now obsolete use of self. 

160. prest into it. Do not mistake prest for a contracted 
word. See Pericles IV Gower 45. 

183. Go presently inquire. Eemember that the invariable 
meaning of presently in Shakespeare is immediately. 

185. Express in modern business parlance Antonio's two 
grounds of confidence. 

Scene 2. 

1. my little body. Do these words justify us in any inference 
concerning Portia's height ? Be on the watch for further indica- 
tions of the stature either of Portia or of Nerissa. 

50. as who should say. This now obsolete expression you 



96 NOTES. 

have already met with in the previous scene. It occurs frequently 
in the plays. Before Shakespeare's time the phrase as who saith 
was also common. On this use of the interrogative pronoun as an 
indefinite, see Henry Sweet's New English Grammar, section 1146, 
and Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, section 257. This indefinite 
use of who is a direct inheritance from Old English. 

108. married to a sponge. See Macbeth i, 7, 71. 

135. The four strangers. Nothing in the scene enables us to 
account for precisely four strangers. Discuss the seriousness of 
such incongruities as marring the effectiveness of a play on the 



Show the special fitness of the prose form for such a dialogue 
as that of this scene. By what term must the rime tag, with 
respect to its rhythm, be described ? 

Scene 3. 

17. his means are in supposition. Think out the fitting 
modern expressions synonymous with this phrase. 

40. What change takes place here in the tone of the dialogue, 
that should cause the substitution of verse for prose ? 

44. As we are no longer accustomed to the conjunction-phrase, 
for that, we naturally tend to make the mistake of putting upon 
the that the emphasis due to a demonstrative. So in 50 we are no 
longer used to the combination of adverbial antecedent and rela- 
tive, and are apt, in consequence of the even, to read with undue 
emphasis on the there. 

46 : 52. usance . . . which he calls interest. Which is the 
more ancient term — Shylock's or Antonio's? With which is 
connected, etymologically , the modern term of evil import ? Whose 
ideas as to the moral propriety of taking interest have come to pre- 
vail in our day — Shylock's or Antonio's ? Eead Bacon's Essay on 
Usury. 

47. If I can catch him once upon the hip. See this play iv, 
1, 334 ; Othello ii, 1, 314. Whence comes the metaphor ? 

59. How many months Do you desire ? Consider carefully 
the inflection to be given this question. 



ACT I. SCENE III. 97 

60. Rest you fair, good signior. Spoken with the same in- 
tent, and in the same circumstances, as MacTbeth's, Give me your 
favor, i, 3, 149. 

65. Is he yet possessed How much ye would ? Possess fre- 
quently has this meaning in Shakespeare. See, e.g.^ T. Night ii, 
3, 149 ; Cor. ii, 1, 145 ; Much Ado v, 1, 290, and tlie other instances 
of the word in this sense in this play. 

70. Methought you said. Understand once for all the per- 
fect grammatical propriety of this expression, and of Chaucer's 
him thoughte, us thoughte, how thinketh it you. In connection 
with the impersonal verb thinks, thought, consider how English 
has come to differ from German, which still has denken and 
dunken. 

104. It will be interesting to consider at what point Shylock's 
scheme for entrapping Antonio first shows itself, 

106. beholding to you. Beholding is, of course, strictly speak- 
ing, an incorrect form, but it is the only one used by Shakespeare. 
On the way in which this form has come to displace the legitimate 
one, see the New English Dictionary. 

131-138. Discuss Antonio's treatment of Shylock. Do you 
find that your respect and admiration for Antonio suffer any 
diminution in consequence of his harshness towards a fellow-mor- 
tal ? Could a modern dramatist employ the main motive of the 
play ? 

153-156. Shylock's proposition seems to us utterly monstrous, 
abominable, and shocking. But does it seem to startle Antonio 
and Bassanio ? As the cutting of flesh from the body of a delin- 
quent debtor was a penalty known to Eoman and Teutonic law, 
and had long served as motive for tales and poems, may it not be 
that Shylock's suggestion of it strikes Antonio and Bassanio as 
quite intelligible and in harmony with the Jew's purpose in lending 
the money without interest and in professedly asking for the bond 
merely as a joke ? Do the others seem greatly to object to Shy- 
lock's expressions, "in a merry sport," and "this merry bond" ? 
A bond drawn with such a penalty seemed perhaps to Shylock's 
intended victim really no bond at all. But take into consideration 
Antonio's speech, 16»7-160. Do Antonio and Bassanio seem as 



98 NOTES. 

much surprised as we should expect at Shylock's lending the money 
without interest ? 

182. dismay, an etymological hybrid : look up its history. 

ACT 11. 

Scene 1 . 

9. Hath feared the valiant. So in T. of Shrew i, 2, 211 ; 3 
Hen. VI. iii, 3, 226 ; v, 2, 2 ; Lear iii, 5, 4 ; Ant. and Cle. ii, 6, 24. 
" 14. nice direction of a maiden's eyes. See L. L. Lost iii, 1, 24 ; 
Hen. V. V, 2, 293 ; J. Csesar iv, 3, 8. 

19. His wife who wins me. Describe in grammatical terms 
the use of his in this expression, and show what function the word 
in modern English has lost. 

20. then stood as fair. Li what mode is stood ^ Translate 
the verb into any other language of which you know something. 
Find other verbs whose mode, like that of stood, is not obvious to 
the eye. 

32. play at dice Which is the better man. Note the absence 
of punctuation. 

44. forward to the temple. If temple here means church, it is 
difficult to imagine why the word church should not be used, as in 
i, 1, 29 ; i, 2, 14 ; iii, 2, 305. 

46. To make me blest or cursedst. One of the participles, 
for obvious reasons, dispenses with its superlative ending. See 
Meas. for Meas. iv, 6, 13 ; this play, iii, 2, 295. 

Scene 2. 

39. try confusions. Perhaps Launcelot tries to use the phrase 
employed by Hamlet iii, 4, 195. 

47. By God's sonties. A common oath, usually particular- 
ized, as in Shrew iii, 2, 84 ; Eich. III. i, 1, 138. 

59. Launcelot manages his ergo much better than the grave- 
digger in Hamlet does his, v, i. 

98. Lord worshipped. Neither the meaning nor the applica- 
tion of the phrase is quite obvious. 



ACT 11. SCENE 11. 99 

110. I will not rest. See Rom. and Jul. v, 3, 110 ; Lear i, 

1, 125. 

115. give me your present to one Master Bassanio, Eeferto 
Jul. Cses. i, 2, 267. This use of me is very common in the plays. 
Observe that it is always enclitic. 

139. As there are no other cater-cousins in Shakespeare, you , 
are compelled to make the dictionary suffice. 

142. shall frutify unto you. What can Launcelot be trying to 
say ? 

146. impertinent. Consider whether the use of this word by 
one of the poet's wisest personages agrees with the sense in which 
we now use it : Tempest i, 2, 138. 

152. the very defect of the matter. Refer to Polonius's playing 
with this word : Hamlet ii, 2, 101. 

155. hath preferred thee. Illustrate this very common mean- 
ing of prefer from Jul. Cses. v. 5, 62. 

160. The old proverb can easily be reproduced by joining the 
parts assigned by Launcelot to Bassanio and Shylock respectively. 

164. more guarded than his fellows'. See Much Ado i, 1, 288 ; 
Henry VIII. Prol. 16. 

167. a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book. 
Launcelot' s table is, of course, the table of chiromancy. Look it 
up in Webster or the Century. The subject of chiromancy, or 
palmistry, can be investigated in any of the numerous books on 
the subject, as in Heron-Allen's Manual of Cheirosophy. A chiro- 
mantic chart of the hand can be seen in the note on this passage 
in Knight's Shakespeare. 

As to sicearing on a book, see Tempest ii, 2, 145 ; Mer. Wives i, 
4, 156 ; L. L. Lost iv, 3, 250 ; 1 Hen. IV. ii, 4, 56. 

196. thy skipping spirit. Knowing Gratiano, you understand 
the meaning of sJcipjmig. See also Macbeth i, 2, 30 ; L. L. Lost v, 

2, 771 ; 1 Hen. IV. iii, 2, 60. 

201. look demurely. You willof ten find this form of speech 
in Shakespeare. Explain in grammatical language wherein, ac- 
cording to present usage, it is deemed incorrect. 

205. like one well studied. See Macbeth i, 4, 9 ; Shrew ii, 
1, 160. 



100 NOTES. 

How has the plot been advanced by this scene ? Have there 
been any portions of the scene that have not contributed essen- 
tially to the forwarding of the main action ? What may be the 
dramatic purpose of such portions ? 

Scene 3. 
What piece of the plot is here presented? As the character 
of Jessica will have to be discussed when we shall have seen all 
the revelations of it, note her words in her brief soliloquy as 
indicating her moral quality. 

Scene 4-. 

10. break up this. That this is not a Gobboism, but a usual 
expression, appears from Winter's Tale iii, 2, 132. 

24. provided of a torch-bearer. Compare Macbeth i, 2, 13 ; 
this play, v, 1, 297. Compare also line 32, below. Shakespeare 
regularly uses of ?iiter provide, and with aitev furnish. 

Scene 5. 

21. So do I his. Allowing Launcelot's blunder to be innocent, 
how will you characterize Shy lock's humor in taking it thus in its 
literal sense ? And what do these words seem to indicate in regard 
to Shy lock's anticipation of the issue of the business of the bond ? 
Can we suppose that Shylock knew more about the course of 
Antonio's maritime ventures than Antonio himself ? 

28. Hear you me, Jessica. In Scene 2, Gratiano says, Signior 
Bassanio, hear me. Describe in terms of grammar the difference 
between the two imperative expressions. Be on the lookout for 
instances from which you may infer Shakespeare's usage in respect 
to the imperative. 

30. the wry-necked fife. It would be quite in accordance with 
the poet's way of speaking to call the fife wry-necked because the 
player on it was so in the act of playing. Compare the insane 
root, Macbeth i, 3, 84. Or perhaps the fife of his day really had a 
crooked neck. There is no telling what he had in mind. 



ACT 11. SCENE VI. 101 

36. By Jacob's staff. While you note down all the oaths you 
find in the play, consider particularly those of Shylock. 

43. Will be worth a Jewess' eye. Knight suggests that " the 
play upon the words alludes to the common proverbial expression, 
' worth a Jew's eye.' That worth was the price which the perse- 
cuted Jews paid for the immunity from mutilation and death. 
When our rapacious King John extorted an enormous sum from 
the Jew of Bristol by drawing his teeth, the threat of putting out 
an eye would have a like effect upon other Jews." 

45. His words were "Farewell mistress," nothing else. Of 
course, you will discuss Jessica's morality. Not only did the 
Elizabethan audience laugh at Jessica's lie, but a modern audience 
also complaisantly laughs at it. But is it laughable ? Could a 
modern play introduce such a motive ? Is it interesting to see 
even Shylock thus forsaken and deceived by his daughter ? Is she 
destined to meet with retribution in the play ? 

Scene 6. 

14. like a younker. See the same phrase, 3 Hen. YI. ii, 1, 24, 
and the word younker again 1 Hen. IV. iii, 3, 92. 

15. The scarfed bark. Compare All's Well ii, 3, 214, and this 
play, iii, 2, 98. 

21. my long abode. So in Cymbeline, i, 6, 53. 

24. Wherein consists the metrical peculiarity of the line ? 

42. So again, v, 1, 129-130. 

49. gild myself with some more ducats. Comment on the 
relations that seem to have subsisted between Shylock and his 
daughter, as shown by the ease of Jessica's access to the ducats. 

51. by my hood. Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, 507, has 
the line, " That is a trewe tale, by myn hood." 

52. Beshrew me. A very common form of imprecation, and 
often in the same tone as here. See below, iii, 2, 14. 

54. if that mine eyes be true. You have noted already how 
frequently the conjunction that is added to other conjunctions 
without modifying their meaning. In this use it is always enclitic, 
and must so be read. Thus you will find an unaccented that ap- 



102 NOTES. 

pended to after, because^ when, if, for, hut, lest, and other conjunc- 
tions, and also to relative adverbs. 

Scene 7. 

2. discover the several caskets to this noble prince. Describe 
the difference between the former and the present uses of the word 
discover. 

4. who this inscription bears. A frequent use of who. Com- 
pare Tempest i, 2, 7 ; Errors i, 2, 37 ; Winter's Tale iv, 4, 581. 

5, 7, 9. How are the inscription-verses distinguished from the 
dialogue ? 

43. For princes to come view. Compare Csesar i, 1, 3 ; 
Othello ii, 3, 190 ; Winter's Tale iv, 1, 26 ; Lear iv, 5, 35. 

51. To rib her cerecloth. The verb to rib is perfectly defined 
in Cymbeline iii, 1, 19. 

53. ten times undervalued to tried gold. Is this the ratio at 
the present day ? You can see a table of the ratios of value of 
gold to silver from 1493 to 1879, in Encyclo. Brit. XVI, p. 729. 

59-60. Note the rime here and in sonnet Iii, 1-3, and infer the 
Shakespearian pronunciation of key. 

60. thrive I as I may. So in Richard III. ii, 1, 11 ; ii, 1, 24 ; 
iv, 4, 235. To make sure of the mood, note the same construction 
in the third person : John iv, 2, 95 ; 1 Hen. VI. iii, 1, 174 ; Rom. 
and Jul. ii, 2, 154. See it also in the first plural, 1 Hen. IV. v, 
2, 12. 

65-75. Give a metrical description of these lines, noting the 
number of the accents and the nature of the feet, as iambic or 
trochaic. Do all the eleven lines come under precisely the same 
description ? In what respect do lines 74 and 75 differ from each 
other ? 

Scene 8. 

25. Let good Antonio look he keep his day. On the con- 
struction compare John iv, 1, 1 ; 2 Hen. VI. ii, 1, 189 ; Richard III. 
iii, 4, 80 ; Jul. Cses. i, 3, 143. Describe this construction. What 
form of speech replaces it in present English ? 



ACT IL SCENE IX. 103 

27. I reasoned with a Frenchman. The noun reason, in the 
sense of dialogue, conversation, and the verb reason, meaning to 
speak or talJc,' were common enough in Middle EngUsh, as also 
were, in the Italian and French of the same period, the correspond- 
ing verbs ragionare and raisonner. It seems probable that Shake- 
speare got reason in this sense from the sources which furnished 
-him the story of the play, for he does not so use it again. 

33. You were best to tell. Perhaps a development out of the 
more logical phrase, you had best (or better) tell. Parse were and 
to tell. Neither this form of speech nor you had better tell must 
be censured as in the least incorrect, 

39. Slubber not business. Compare Othello i, 3, 227. 
42. Let it not enter in your mind of love. Paraphrase the 
line so as to make it express in usual forms of speech its obvious 
meaning. 

48. Affection wondrous sensible. Compare sensible regreets 
in the next scene. Express in modern phrase the meaning of 
sensible in these cases. 

52. quicken his embraced heaviness. Compare the expres- 
sion, even such a passion doth embrace my bosom, Troi. and Cres. 
iii, 2, 37, and consider whether, notwithstanding the passive parti- 
ciple, it is Antonio that embraces the heaviness, or the heaviness 
that embraces Antonio. 



Scene 9. 

19. And so have I addressed me. Compare Wives iii, 5, 135 ; 
All's Well iii, 6, 103 ; 2 Hen. VI. v, 2, 27. 

26. may be meant By the fool multitude. The meaning of 
by in the passage may be illustrated from T. G. of Ver. ii, 4, 151 ; 
Much. Ado V, 1, 312. 

28. like the martlet. Compare Shakespeare's two martlets,— 
this and Banquo's, Mac. i, 6, 4, —noting the very different motives 
of their introduction in the two cases. 

32. I will not jump with common spirits. See the Yevh jump, 
in this now wholly obsolete sense, Shrew i, 1, 195 ; Othello i, 3, 5, 
and frequently elsewhere. 



104 NOTES. 

37. who shall go about To cozen fortune. Illustrate the 
phrase go about from M. N. Dream iv, 1, 212 ; Ham. iii, 2, 361. 

61. To offend and judge are distinct offices And of opposed 
natures. It is not clear just what meaning Portia intends to con- 
vey by this speech, or in what tone she speaks it. Does she seem 
to be exulting over Arragon's discomfiture ? Does she seem to be 
sneering at the blunder of his choice ? Does she not rather seem 
to wish to soothe his wounded pride ? He has erred indeed in 
judgement, but this error by no means implies that he has given 
offence. Debate the matter. 

Distinct is thus accented again, Troi. and Cres. iv. 4, 47, but 
not iv, 5, 245. 

63-78. Describe the metre of the schedule verses and of Arra- 
gon's echo of them. Note especially 63 and 75. Get from the 
following passages a hint of the way to manage the syllables of 63 : 
Cymbeline iii, 1, 32 ; Csesar iii, I, 171 ; Macbeth iv, 1, 11. 

85. what would my lord ? What is Portia's mood ? 

89. he bringeth sensible regreets. Recur to line 48, preced- 
ing scene ; and see John iii, 1, 241. 



ACT III. 

Scene 1. 

9. as lying a gossip as ever knapped ginger. See Meas. for 
Meas. iv, 3, 3. 

23. lest the devil cross my prayer. Recur to ii, 4, 36, and 

ii, 5, 56. 

49. Once again the poet uses the word smug. See it, 1 Hen. TV. 
iii, 1, 102. Look up the etymology of the word, and note its rela- 
tion to smock. 

Consider what indications of the lapse of considerable time 
are furnished by this and the previous scenes. What main 
motive of the play distinctly assumes that a definite period has 
passed? Can any points of the action be specified where inter- 
vals of time may be supposed to occur? Can a Shakespearian 



ACT III. SCENE II. 105 

play, like a chronicle of actual events, be subjected to rigid 
time analysis ? 

Scene 2. 

2. in choosing wrong, I lose your company. Explain wherein 
this language, according to the modern construction, would fail to 
convey the writer's meaning. 

6: Young readers are very apt to emphasize this line wrongly. 

14. Beshrew your eyes. Describe the mood of mind that 
expresses itself in this exclamation. Recur to ii, 6, 52. 

20. Prove it so. Is this an imperative sentence, and to be 
read as such ? See a precisely similar construction in the second 
person, below, line 61. • See the same construction in the first per- 
son, 2 Hen. VI. v, 2, 57, and again in the third, Macbeth iii, 1, 26. 
See also Samson Agonistes, 1057 ; King John iii, 3, 31 ; Coleridge, 
Piccolomini, ii, 1, 71 ; Scott's Last Minstrel, I, xxiii. 

22. to peize the time. Compare Richard III, v, 3, 105. 

23. To eke it. Eke is an interesting word to investigate. See, 
if you can, Dr. Murray's collection of passages illustrating its 
history, 

27. then confess What treason there is. Explain the connec- 
tion between the rack and treason. 

44. he makes a swan-like end. See Othello v, 2, 247. 

59. With bleared visages. Compare Shrew v, 1, 120 ; Corio- 
lanus ii, 1, 221. 

63-72, Put together Portia's / could teach you How to choose 
right, line 10 ; her promise. If you do love me, you will find me out, 
line 41 ; her directions to Nerissa and the rest to stand all aloof ; 
her command, Let music sound while he doth make his choice ; and, 
finally, Bassanio's interpretation of the song, line 73, and consider 
whether she has not virtually taught this favored lover how to 
choose right. Paraphrase the song so as to show how Bassanio is 
justified in the inference he draws from it, 

87, valor's excrement. See Errors ii, 2, 79; L. L. Lost v, 
1, 109. 

89. the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty. The fig- 
ure becomes clear in the light of an inference that may be drawn 



106 NOTES. 

from the following passages : Two Gent, ii, 6, 25 ; v, 2, 11 ; L. L. 
Lost iv, 3, 253, 261 ; Sonnet 127, 1, 3. 

118. Or whether. Is the question adversative, or does it sim- 
ply continue the previous one ? What word in it is to bear the 
main emphasis ? 

176. to exclaim on you. See 1 Hen. VI. iii, 3, 60 ; Ham. ii, 
2, 367. 

188. it is now our time. For whom, besides herself, can 
Nerissa be speaking ? Does Gratiano also, in his speech, 191-196, 
speak in the plural number ? 

193. For I am sure you can wish none from me. The situa- 
tion suggests various interpretations of this line. Think out as 
many as you can. They will turn principally on the meaning to 
be assigned to the word /rom. 

242. That royal merchant, good Antonio. On royal merchant 
consult the Century Dictionary. 

282. the magnificoes of greatest port. See 2 Hen. VI. iv, 
1,19. 

287. The Hebrew names, Tubal and Chus, as well as Leah^ 
Scene 1, Shakespeare got, of course, from the Old Testament. 
Shakespeare's Bible was the translation of 1568, commonly known 
as the Bishops' Bible. The name which in our version of 1611 
appears in the form Cush is, in the Bishops' Bible, spelled Chus. 
Kemember the pronunciation of ch in words derived from the 
Hebrew. Of the words cherub and Jericho, which follows the rule, 
and which is the exception ? 

Furness's Variorum note on the origin of the name Shylock is 
interesting. 

295. The best- conditioned and unwearied spirit. Must we 
regard this as an ill-matched pairing of positive and superlative ? 
See Meas. for Meas. iv, 6, 13 ; Hen. V. ii, 2, 139. So Abbott cites 
Ben Jonson, The soft and sweetest music. 

304. Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. The line 
contains two monosyllables, either of which may, in accordance 
with Shakespearian usage, be split into two. Try each, and decide 
which is the better one to divide. 

321. between you and I. Compare Wives iii, 2, 25 ; 3 Hen. VI. 



ACT III. SCENES III., IV. 107 

iii, 2, 128 ; Hamlet iii, 4, 8 ; ii, 2, 196. From these instances draw 
an inference as to the poet's employment of cases after between. 

Scene 3. 

9. Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond. The word 
nmighty has an interesting history. What change in meaning has 
it undergone since the poet's time ? 

Fond has here its usual Shakespearian meaning. Middle English 
had the noun fonne, a fool, and the verb to fonne, to be a fool. 
Of this verb, fo7id is the regular participle. Recall the fond eye of 
Arragon ii, 9, 27. 

20. with bootless prayers. Find in the Cotter's Saturday Night 
a verb of the boot family that is now obsolete in standard English. 
What very common words of this family are still in daily use ? 

30. since that. See note on ii, 6, 54. 

Scene 4. 

2. A noble and a true conceit. Note the two other passages 
in this play where the word conceit occurs, and compare Hamlet ii, 
2, 579 ; ii, 2, 583 ; iii, 4, 114 ; iv, 5, 45. 

12. waste the time together. See this use of waste, Tempest 
v, 1, 302 ; As You Like It ii, 4, 95. 

25. The husbandry and manage of my house. See Hamlet 
i, 3, 77 ; Tempest i, 2, 70. 

32. and there will we abide. What will you say in defence of 
Portia's inveracity ? See lines 69 and 74, below. 

53. Portia is good enough to define for us the word tranect. 

67. two mincing steps. See Isaiah iii, 16 ; Hamlet ii, 2, 537 ; 
1 Hen. IV. iii, 1, 134. 

69. quaint lies. Compare Tempest i, 2, 317 ; Shrew iv, 3, 102. 

72. I could not do withal. With, in withal, has its primitive 
meaning, — against, — as in the verb withstand. What modern 
verb expresses Portia's meaning ? 

74. these puny lies. You will find x>uny a most interesting 
word to investigate. In what shape does it appear in As You Like 
It iii, 4, 46 ? 



108 WOTES. 



Scene 5. 



Considering that this scene does nothing to forward the action 
of the play, account for it on other grounds. Note that line 81 
of the preceding scene raises expectation. Note also the stage of 
maturity which the plot, in its development, has reached when 
the immediately following scene opens. Compare, moreover, 
this scene with the following one in respect to tone. 



ACT IV. 

Scene 1. 

I, 2. A trimeter couplet. 

5. empty From any dram of mercy. But see Troi. and Cres. 
ii, 2, 34 ; iv, 2, 6 ; Cymbeline iii, 4, 71. Comment on Shakespeare's 
usage. 

9. and that no lawful means. You noted a peculiar use of 
that in if that mine eyes he true, ii, 6, 54. But in the passage 
under consideration that is used for a different purpose. Describe 
this purpose. 

II. armed to suffer. See line 264, this scene. See also Shrew 
ii, 1, 140 ; Kichard II. iii, 2, 104. What words would present use 
require in these cases instead of armed f 

14. Go one, and call. Compare Ant. and Cle. iv, 8, 1 ; ii, 2, 129 ; 
Hamlet i, 1, 70. The power to use the verb in this form has almost 
departed from our language. 

26. A moiety of the principal. See the exact meaning of 
moiety, Hen. VIII. i, 2, 12, and the more usual meaning 1 Hen. IV. 
iii, 1, 96. 

29. Enow to press a royal merchant down. Shakespeare 
always uses the form enow^ as here and in iii, 5, 24, in a plural 
sense, — qua,rrels enoio, we are enow, faggots enow, napkins enow, 
liars and swearers enow, evils enow. Note how the form enough 
is used in this play : ii, 2, 160 ; ii, 2, 191 ; ii, 5, 46 ; ii, 7, 27 ; 
iii, 1, 15; iv, 1, 127; iv, 1, 159; iv, 1, 280; v, 1, 264. But see 
Wint. Tale iv, 4, 579. 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 109 

47. Some men there are love not a gaping pig. The gaping 
pig is interpreted by various Shakespearians in two ways: as a 
pig roasted and served on the table, and as a squealing pig. In 
view of what we know of Shylock's habits and prejudices, with 
which aspect of the pig may we consider him to be the more 
familiar ? 

60. affection, Mistress of passion. Compare the eight in- 
stances in which the word affectio7i is used in this play : i, 1, 16; 
i, 2, 37 ; i, 2, 41 ; ii, 1, 22 ; ii, 8, 48 ; iii, 1, 62 ; v, 1, 87, and ^how 
how its present meaning differs from the former one. 

54-55. Why he . . . Why he. Compare Macbeth iv, 3, 80. 
Describe the use of the pronouns in these cases. 

63. no answer to excuse. See note on line 162, this scene. 

70. think you question with the Jew. With tM7ik as used 
here compare the sam'fe word as used ii, 8, 50. State the difference 
between the two meanings. How would the phrase, think you 
question, ordinarily be understood to-day ? 

73. you may as well use question. What is the difference in 
meaning between use question here, and make question, i, 1, 156, 
and i, 1, 184 ? 

76. forbid the mountain pines to make no noise. With mul- 
tiplied negatives, wholly intolerable in present English, the young 
reader of Shakespeare must early become familiar. Note tha 
phrase, 7ior I will not, line 59, above. 

78. When they are fretten. State, in grammatical terms, the 
difference between the form fretten and the form of the same parti- 
ciple that you find in Ant. and Cle. iv, 12, 8. Is it the same verb 
that occurs in Caesar ii, 1, 104, and in Cymbeline ii, 4, 88 ? On 
this matter consult the dictionary. 

93-97. Shall I say to you Let them be free, etc. Is this pas- 
sage to be read as an interrogative or as an imperative sentence ? 
Are the subordinate questions in it to be inflected in accordance 
with their own character, or with reference to their dependence on 
the main question. Shall I say to you ? 

114. I am a tainted wether. Recall the other instances of the 
use of the word tainted in this play. 

114-118. Describe the mood of Antonio as expressed in this 



110 NOTES. 

speech, and comment on it with reference to his character and his 
reputation as a " royal merchant," 

122. It is clear what syllable is to be elided, 

128. inexecrable dog. Compare execrable wretch^ T. Andron. 
V, 3, 177. See the definition of inexecrable in the International 
Dictionary. May it be that the poet meant to use the word inexor- 
able f Is the prefix in always negative ? 

131-133. Name the Pythagorean doctrine here referred to. 
Look up De Quincey's Essay on Traditions of the Rabbins. See 
also Twelfth Night iv, 2, 54. 

134. who, hanged for human slaughter. Comment on the 
case and construction of who. 

On the hanging of animals compare Two Gentlemen iv, 4, 16 ; 
Much Ado ii, 3, 82 ; iii, 3, (SQ. See an interesting chapter on Legal 
Prosecutions of the Lower Animals in Chambers's Book of Days, 
Vol. I, page 126. See also Emma Phipson's Animal Lore of 
Shakespeare's Time, page 36. 

139. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond. See this 
play, i, 3, 49. The word rail occurs more frequently in Troilus 
and Cressida than in any other play. To what character is this 
peculiarity especially due ? 

162. let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a 
reverend estimation : that is, let his lack of years be no impediment 
sufficiefit to cause him to lack a reverend estimation, — a use of the 
infinitive common enough both anciently and now. See Tempest 
ii, 1, 314. See also this scene, line 63, — no answer to excuse. 

165. whose trial. Who is it that is to try, and who to be 
tried, in the trial referred to in this passage ? 

217. curb this cruel devil. Refer to i, 2, 26. 

241. There is no power in the tongue of man. Compare, 
with regard to metric value, the word power ^ as it occurs here, 
with the other instances of its use in the play : i, 3, 93 ; iii, 2, 125 ; 
iii, 2, 179 ; iii, 2, 225 ; iii, 2, 291 ; iv, 1, 104 ; iv, 1, 190 ; iv, 1, 196 ; 
iv, 1, 218 ; iv, 1, 292 ; v, 1, 79. 

251. more elder. You will have occasion to note many in- 
stances of this now intolerable construction. 

255. Are there balance here. Compare T. Andron. i, 1, 55. 



ACT IV. SCENE 11. Ill 

275. speak me fair in death. Compare Errors iv, 2, 16. 
306. Look up the etymology of jot. 

326-327. Describe, grammatically, the difference between the 
phrases just a pound and a just pound. 

333. How will you find ten syllables in this verse ? Compare 
340, below. 

334. Of what speech of Shylock does this line remind you ? 
368. That thou shalt see, etc. Would the English of to-day 

tolerate this phrase ? Would the Shakespearian English tolerate 
our phrase ? See Dream iii, 2, 433. Note, as you read, the poet's 
use of the various modal auxiliaries. 

372. may drive unto a fine. Compare Much Ado i, 1, 302. 

380-385. Explain the arrangement which Antonio suggests. 

389. Of all he dies possessed. Supply the elided word, and 
suggest a cause for its elision. 

398-400. Consider that the jury system is very ancient. See 
Meas. for Meas. ii, 1, 19. 

402. I humbly do desire your grace of pardon. Compare 
Dream iii, 1, 183 ; As You Like It v, 4, 56 ; Othello iii, 3, 212. 

411-412. You here see one of the common uses of the word 
withal in the language of the poet's day. Describe this use. 

421. of force I must attempt you. Compare Csesar iv, 3, 203. 

445. An if your wife be not, etc. The conjunction and., often 
shortened to an, is much used in Elizabethan English with the 
simple meaning if. Look it up in Murray or the Century. The 
combination and if, or an if, is a favorite phrase with Shakespeare, 
and means neither more nor less than either and or if alone. 

451. Be valued 'gainst your wife's commandment. Corn- 
mandment is obviously to be pronounced here as in 1 Hen. VI., i, 
3, 20. Everywhere else in the verse of the plays it must be pro- 
nounced as in Hamlet i, 5, 102 ; v, 2, 385. 

Scene 2. 

15. We shall have old swearing. Old is used here in pre- 
cisely the same sense, and in the same tone, as by the porter, 
Macbeth ii, 3, 2, and by Mistress Quickly, Merry Wives i, 4, 5. 



112 NOTES. 

Define the word as thus used, and show how from its fundamental 
meaning this peculiar one was developed. 

ACT V. 

Scene 1. 

4. Troyan. How is this word spelt in the play whose scene is 
at Troy ? 

10. Stood Dido with a willow in her hand. With Dido's ivil- 
low compare Viola's, Twelfth Night i, 5, 287 ; Ophelia's, Hamlet 
iv, 7, 167 ; the one Desdemona ascribes to the maid Barbara, 
Othello iv, 3, 28-51 ; Emilia's, Othello v, 2, 248 ; and the one 
Benedick commends to Claudio, Much Ado ii, 1, 194. Then infer 
the significance of the willow as a poetic motive. 

11. and waft her love. Infer from the context the tense of 
ivaft. Account for its form. Find other instances of the same 
peculiarity. 

15. Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew. Comment on 
Lorenzo's raillery of his bride. How can he ascribe to her an 
unthrift love ? 

21. Compare as to metric value the Jessica of this line with the 
Jessica of line 15. 

49. let's in. Compare I must away, iv, 1, 403 ; you and I to ill 
thither, iv, 1, 455 ; we HI away, iv, 2, 2. What peculiarity have 
these passages in common ? Do you find it of frequent occurrence ? 

51. My friend Stephano. With the pronunciation of Stephano 
here and in line 28, above, compare that of the same name in the 
Tempest v, 1, 277. 

60-65. Shakespeare makes several other references to the music 
of the spheres, as in Pericles v, 1, 231 ; Twelfth Night iii, 1, 121 ; 
As You Like It ii, 7, 6. But by all means read Milton's At a Sol- 
emn Music, and his Arcades. The passage of the Arcades 61-73, 
is explained by reference to the Tale of Er in Plato's Kepublic, 
Book X. See also Job xxxviii. 

64, this muddy vesture of decay. The notion of the body as 
a mere clos and obstruction to the soul lies at the foundation of 



ACT V. SCENE I. 113 

the belief in the virtue of ascetic practices and of the mortification 
of the flesh. It appears in various forms as a poetic motive. 

77. a mutual stand. Is mutual here used with its proper 
meaning ? 

86. The word spirit very frequently, in Shakespeare as in other 
poets, has to be pronounced as a monosyllable. Is the word sprite, 
or spright, which has developed from spirit, exactly equivalent to 
it in meaning ? Italian verse shortens spirito by dropping out the 
second i, making the form spirto. Which would seem the more 
natural, to drop the accented ^, or the unaccented ? 

92. When the moon shone. Can you make the tense of 
shone consistent with what precedes and with what follows ? 

99. Nothing is good, I see, without respect. Supply the 
words which in present usage are indispensable to complete the 
meaning of respect in this sense. 

103. When neither is attended. Is it better to understand a 
to as omitted after attended, or to complete the sense by adding in 
thought such a phrase as, hij the right conditions f 

115. which speed, we hope, the better for our words. All the 
other speeds in this play have the usual present meaning of the 
word. But see Lear i, 2, 19. 

129, 130. Where else in the play have we already had the same 
play upon words ? 

136, 137. Milton himself could not forbear punning, even in 
Paradise Lost, on the vocable hound. See Book IV, line 181. 

148. That she did give me, whose posy was, etc. The line 
halts. Shall we elide the me, and then regard the line as a four- 
footer, or shall we try to make it " run smoothly in the even road of 
a blank verse " by some device or other ? Shall we read it with a to 
between give and me 9 Or shall we read poesy, instead oiposy, bring- 
ing an accent on the e of poesy 9 Or shall we conceive a pause after 
me, taking the place of an accented syllable ? Debate the matter. 

149. cutler's poetry Upon a knife. It was the custom to etch 
mottoes (posies) on the blades of knives. 

169, And so riveted with faith unto your flesh. What the 
printed text does for us in line 11 above, we are left in this line to 
do for ourselves. 



114 NOTES. 

189. Even so void is your false heart of truth. Scan this 
line in connection with the others in the scene that contain the 
word even. 

205. What man is there so much unreasonable . . . wanted 
the modesty. The sense of the passage depends on your correctly 
supplying the elided words, and on your understanding the mood 
of wanted. 

293. of all he dies possessed of. Note the curious difference 
between this phrase as it stands here and the same phrase, iv, 1, 389. 

298. charge us there upon inter' gatories, — a formal phrase of 
English legal procedure. Its meaning in this case is explained by 
the next line. 



Questions on the play, to serve as topics of discussion in the 
class, or as subjects for compositions or theses by individual 
pupils. 

1. What two main stories are interwoven to make the staple 
of the plot, and what two subordinate stories are involved with 
these or attached to them ? How are these several elements of 
the plot linked together ? Comment on the relation of the fifth 
act to the rest of the play. 

2. Select passages which imply considerable lapse of time. A 
three-months bond has matured : is it possible to find points where 
the continuity of the action can be conceived as being so much 
interrupted as to make room for the passage of this time ? 

3. Is the play pure comedy ? What human passions does it 
bring into collision ? Are all these conflicts settled by happy 
reconciliation of the contending interests ? Does the denouement 
satisfy us as being untainted with malignity ? Compare the de- 
nouement of the Tempest. 

4. Compare Antonio's bearing throughout the play, his helpless- 
ness and friendlessness in the clutches of Shylock, with his reputa- 
tion -as a royal merchant. What dramatic purpose does Antonio 
serve ? Why should the play be named from him ? 



NOTES. 115 

5. Describe the character of Portia, — her traits of mind and 
heart. Do you find any drawbacks whatever to the completeness 
of your admiration for her ? Note what persons in the play are 
made to express hatred and detestation of Shylock, and to gloat 
over his humiliation. Is Portia one of these persons ? 

6. Name the elements of Shylock' s character. In connection 
with Shylock, consider what leading motive of the play has vanished 
to-day from the range of dramatic possibilities. Is Shylock, bad as 
he is, made to suffer too much ? What affiction should even he, in 
your opinion, have been spared ? 

7. Give your opinion of Jessica. Do her performances seem to 
you in any way essential to the main action ? What appears to 
you to be the function of the Jessica story ? 

8. What kind of a man is Bassanio ? Do you find that Portia 
contrives to help him in his choice of the caskets ? Is Bassanio, or 
any other of the men in the play, cool-headed and shrewd ? 

9. Sum up, so far as you can, the salient points in the characters 
of Gratiano and Lorenzo, of Salarino and Salanio, of Nerissa. 

10. Do you find the Launcelot scenes wholly pleasing ? Think 
of reasons, in connection with the poet's management of his dra- 
matic time, for the introduction into the play of the Launcelot 
scenes and of the Lorenzo-Jessica scenes. Was the poet concerned 
to tell a story in such a way that it should stand analysis as a 
chronicle of events ? What was his purpose in writing this and 
the other dramas ? 

11. Make a study of the diction of any specially elevated pas- 
sage, noting the figures of speech and the choice of words, and 
show, so far as is in your power, what means the poet employed to 
give to his language that otherwise unnamable quality which we 
call Shakespearian. 

12. Describe every form of verse used in the play, and try to 
find a reason for the occasional transition from the standard verse- 
form of the dialogue both to prose and to the peculiar metres 
employed now and then. 



ENGLISH. 



Studies in English Composition 

By Harriet C. Keeler, High School, Cleveland, Ohio, and Emma 
C. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. i2mo, cloth, 210 pages. Price, 80 cents. 

THIS book is the outgrowth of experience in teaching compo- 
sition, and the lessons which it contains have all borne the 
actual test of the class-room. Intended to meet the wants of 
those schools which have composition as a weekly exercise in 
their course of study, it contains an orderly succession of topic? 
adapted to the age and development of high school pupils, to- 
gether with such lessons in language and rhetoric as are of con- 
stant application in class exercises. 

The authors believe that too much attention cannot be given 
to supplying young writers with good models, which not only 
indicate what is expected, and serve as an ideal toward which 
to work, but stimulate and encourage the learner in his first 
efforts. For this reason numerous examples of good writing 
have been given, and many more have been suggested. 

The primal idea of the book is that the pupil learns to write 
by writing ; and therefore that it is of more importance to get 
him to write than to prevent his making mistakes in writing. 
Consequently, the pupil is set to writing at the very outset ; the 
idea of producing something is kept constantly uppermost, and 
the function of criticism is reserved until after something has 
been done which may be criticised. 

T. W. Steams, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Wisconsi7z: It strikes 
me that the author of your " Studies in English Composition " touches 
the gravest defect in school composition work when she writes in her pref- 
ace : " One may as well grasp a sea-anemone, and expect it to show its 
beauty, as ask a child to write from his own experience when he expects 
every sentence to be dislocated in order to be improved." In order to 
improve the beauty of the body, we drive out the soul m our extreme for- 
mal criticisms of school compositions. She has made a book which 
teaches children to write by getting them to write often and freely ; and if 
used with the spirit which has presided over the making of it, it will prove 
a most effective instrument for the reform of school composition work. 

Albert G. Owen, Superintendent, Afton, Iowa: It is an excellent text. I 
am highly pleased with it. The best of the kind I have yet seen. 



ENGLISH. 



Introduction to Theme =Writin^ 

By J. B. Fletcher, Harvard University, and Professor G. R. Car. 
PENTER, Columbia College. i6mo, cloth, 136 pages. Price, 60 cents. 

THE lectures that form the basis of this book were delivered 
by Mr. Fletcher before the Freshman class at Harvard Col- 
lege in the spring of 1893. These have been rearranged, with ad- 
ditional matter by Professor Carpenter. The result is a text-book 
for students who have completed the introductory course in rhet- 
oric usually prescribed at the beginning of the Freshman year. 

The fundamental idea of the book is that in practising any of 
the vaiious kinds of composition the student must decide : 

1. Just what treatment will be most appropriate to the sub- 
ject-matter in general. 

2. What treatment will most clearly bring out his own indi- 
vidual ideas or impressions of this matter. 

3. What treatment will make this subject most clear to the 
particular class of readers or hearers which he has in mind. 

^ Letter-writing, Translation, Description, Criticism, Exposi- 
tion, and Argument are each treated in a clear and concise 
manner, and exercises on each subject are freely introduced. 

Selections from Carlyle 

Edited by Henry W. Boynton, Instructor in English in Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass. i2mo, cloth, 283 pages. Price, 75 cents. 

THIS volume includes material adequate for the elementary 
study of Carlyle in his earliest and most fruitful period. 
It contains the Essays on Burns, on History, on Boswell's Life 
of Johnson, and selections from Heroes and Hero-Worship. 

The Notes are planned in the main to give aid rather than 
information or opinion, and by frequent quotation of illustrative 
passages to make the author his own interpreter. 

The Essay on Burns, with the Notes belonging to it, is 
reprinted to form one of the volumes of the Academy Classics 
Series, advertised on page i of this catalogue. 



ENGLISH. 



From Milton to Tennyson 

Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. Du Pont Syle, Uni- 
versity of California. i2mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, $1.00. 

IN this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within 
the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, 
descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be re- 
quired to read critically for entrance to college. From the 
nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been 
selected as are within the range of the understanding and the 
sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is 
given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of 
Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space 
have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this 
volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets 
from the scope of this work. 

The low price of the book, together with its strong and attrac- 
tive binding, make it especially desirable for those teachers who 
read with their classes even a small part of the poems it contains. 

President D. S. Jordan, Leland Stanford^ Jr., University, Cal.: I have re- 
ceived the copy of Mr. Syle's book, " From Milton to Tennyson," and have 
looked it over with a great deal of interest. It seems to be an excellent 
work for the purpose. The selections seem well adapted to high school 
use, and the notes are wisely chosen and well stated. 

Professor Henry A. Beers, Yale Ujtiversity : The notes are helpful and 
suggestive. What is more, — and what is unusual in text-book annota- 
tions, ~ they are interesting and make very good reading ; not at all school- 
masterish, but really literai-y in their taste and discernment of nice points. 

Professor Elmer E. Wentworth, Vassar College: It is a most attractive 
book in appearance outward and inward, the selections satisfactory and 
just, the notes excellent. - In schools where less time is given than in ours, 
no other book known to me, me judice, will be so good. I wish to com- 
mend the notes again. 

Wm. E. Griffis, Ithaca, NY. • The whole work shows independent research 
as well as refined taste and a repose of judgment tnat is admirable. The 
selected pieces are not overburdened with critical notes, while the sugges- 
tions for comparison and criticism, to be made by the student himself, are 
very valuable. 



ENGLISH. 



9 



Miss Isabel Graves, We lies ley College, We lies ley, Mass.: I am pleased 
with the appearance of the book, and find that the selection of masterpieces 
gives the desired variety. The notes are fortunately directed against 
some prejudices, and must prove suggestive. 

W. E. Sargent, Hebron Academy, Hebron, Me. : The book is a gem — just 
enough selections, and the very best ones of each author. 

F. A. Tupper, Principal of High School, Quincy,Mass.: Mr. Syle's "From 
Milton to Tennyson " is a most admirable book in conception and execu- 
tion. The selections, both of authors and of poems, evince true poetic 
feeling and rare taste. The sketches, notes, and bibliography everywhere 
bear marks of sound and scientific teaching power. The book is adapted 
not only to schools and colleges, but also to the library and the home. I 
feel indebted to the editor of this book, and in expressing my approval, 
I am making only a slight return for the profit derived from the volume. 

Professor Edward S. Parsons, Colorado College: I find the book extremely 
valuable for the wisdom of its selections ; for its comprehensive, yet care- 
fully chosen bibliography ; and for its pointed and entertaining style. 



The following poets are represented 



MILTON, by the 
DRYDEN . . . 



POPE . . . 

THOMSON . 

JOHNSON . 

GRAY . . . 
GOLDSMITH 

COWPER . 

BURNS . . 

COLERIDGE 
BYRON . . 



KEATS . . 
SHELLEY 
WORDSWORTH 



MACAULAY 
CLOUGH . . 

ARNOLD . . 
BROWNING 
TENNYSON 



L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and a Selection from the 

Sonnets. 
Epistle to Congreve, Alexander's Feast, Character of a Good 

Parson. 
Epistles to Mr. Jervas, to Lord Burlington, and to Augustus. 
Winter. 

Vanity of Human Wishes. 

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and The Bard. 
Deserted Village. 
Winter Morning's Walk. 
Cotter's Saturday Night, Tam O'Shanter, and a Selection 

from the Songs. 
Ancient Mariner. 
Isles of Greece and Selections from Childe Harold, Manfred, 

and the Hebrew Melodies. 
E-ve of St. Agnes, Ode to a Nightingale, Sonnet on Chapman's 

Homer. 
Euganean Hills, The Cloud, The Skylark, and the Two 

Sonnets on the Nile. 
Laodamia, The Highland Girl, Tintera Abbey, The Cuckoo, 

The Ode to a Skylark, The Milton Sonnet, The Ode to 

Duty, and the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 
Horatius. 

Two Ships, the Prologue to the Mari Magno, and The Law- 
yer's First Tale. 
Scholar-Gypsy and the Forsaken Merman. 
Transcript from Euripides (Balaustion's Adventure). 
(Enone, the Morte D'Arthur, The Miller's Daughter, and a 

Selection from the Songs. 



10 ENGLISH. 



Select Essays of Macaulay 

Edited by Samuel Thitrber, Girls' High School, Boston. i2mo, 
205 pages ; cloth, 70 cents ; boards, 50 cents. 

THIS selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bunyan, 
Johnson, Goldsmith, and Madame D'Arblay, thus giv- 
ing illustrations both of Macaulay's earlier and of his later 
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and vigorous writing. 

The subjects of the essays are such as to bring them into 
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The annotation is intended to serve as a guide and stimulus to 
research rather than as a substitute for research. The notes, 
therefore, are few in number. Only when an allusion of Macau- 
lay is decidedly difficult to verify does the editor give the result 
of his own investigations. In all other cases he leads the pupil 
to make investigation for himself, believing that a good method 
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Historical Essays of Macaulay 

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ENGLISH. 11 



Select Essays of Addison 

With Macaulay's Essay on Addison. Edited by Samuel Thurber, 
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given . 

Professor Henry S., Pancoast, Philadelphia : I am delighted to find that 
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12 ENGLISH. 



Irving's Sketch=Book 

With notes by Professor Elmer E, Wentworth, Vassar College. 
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THIS is the best and cheapest edition of the complete Sketch- 
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success has been attained in this direction may be estimated 

from the following extracts from letters recently received from 

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Professor Wm. Lyon Phelps, New Haven, Conn. : Please accept my 
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Professor Chas. F. Richardson, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. : 
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graphically; and, secondly, because of the judicious absence of useless notes. 

Professor T. W. Hunt, Princeton College, N.J.: Thanks for Wentworth's 
neat and convenient edition of the Sketch-Book. Had I seen it earlier, I 
should have inserted it in our catalogue for 1 803-1 894. 

Professor Wm, E. Smyser, De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind. : I am 
very much pleased with the book in every particular. 

Professor Edward A. Allen, University of Missouri, Cohanbia, Mo.: 
Please acQept my thanks for a copy of Wentworth's Irving's Sketch- 
Book, which strikes me as the best school edition I have seen. 

Professor 0. B. Clark, Rifon College, Ripoji, Wis. : Permit me to congratu- 
late you on the beauty of the volume, on its cheapness, and, above all, on 
the scholarly taste, modest reserve, and encouraging suggestiveness of the 
notes. Reading and study are made to beget reading and study, and the 
appetite will surely grow with what it feeds on. 



ENGLISH. 13 



A Drill Book in English 

Compiled by George E. Gay, Principal of High School, Maiden, Mass. 
i2mo, boards. Price, 45 cents. 

THIS book is designed for the use of such pupils as have pre- 
viously learned the substance of the rules which it contains. 
It does not aim to give all the principles of the language, but 
emphasizes those which are most frequently violated. It will be 
warmly welcomed by those teachers who are endeavoring in a 
practical way to teach their pupils the use of correct English. 
Such teachers recognize the fact that pupils use many incorrect 
forms of expression, both in speaking and in writing, and they 
have learned by experience that the way to make the vices of a 
language hateful is to place them side by side with their con- 
trasting virtues. It contains, in brief form, rules for spelling, 
punctuation, capitalization, and the more important principles 
of grammar and rhetoric. Abundant exercises for practice are 
given ; and these are arranged on pages with wide margin, so 
that the work of correction can be done with the least expendi- 
ture of time and labor. 

A separate edition, which serves as a key to the exercises, is 
published for the use of teachers. 

J. G. Croswell, Principal of che Brearley School, New York City : I have 
examined Gay's Drill Book in English, and have ordered it at once. It is 
a very valuable addition to the apparatus of the teacher. 

Edwin H, Cutler, Classical School, Newton, Mass. : There is great occasion 
in our schools for a book of this kind ; and I am satisfied from an exam- 
ination of the work that it will prove highly serviceable. 

William E. Frost, Principal of Westford Academy, Westford, Mass. : I like 
it very much, for it supplies material with which a practical teacher can 
really drill classes effectually in the niceties of English expression. 

Daniel E. Owen, Thornton Academy, Saco, Me.: It is the best thing in its 
line that I have ever seen. 

J. P. Marston, Principal of High School, Biddeford, Me. : Its plan is ad- 
mirable for obtaining good results in teaching English language. The 
principles are stated in such a form that pupils will forever hold them. 

A. F. Bechdolt, State University, Grand Forks, N. D. : I like it very much ; 
its examples are well selected, and there is an abundance of them. 



ENGLISH. 



The Academy Series of English Classics 

Substantially bound in boards, and issued at a uniform price of 20 cents. 

THE works selected for this series are such as have gained a 
conspicuous and enduring place in literature ; nothing is 
admitted either trivial in character or ephemeral in interest. 

Each volume is edited by a teacher of reputation, whose name 
is a guaranty of sound and judicious annotation. 

It is the aim of the Notes to furnish assistance only where it 
is absolutely needed, and, in general, to permit the author to be 
his own interpreter. 

All the works in the Series (excepting Webster's Reply to 
Hayne) are printed without mutilation or abridgment. 

Though in typography, in paper, and in mechanical execution, 
the books reach the highest standard, each volume, containing 
from 80 to 140 pages, is published at a uniform price oitwetity 
cents. 

The following is a list of the books that have already appeared. 
Other volumes are in preparation, and will be announced in due 
time. 

Arnold. Essays in Criticism. Edited by Susan S. Sheridan. 

Burke. Conciliation with the Colonies. Edited by Professor C. B. 

Bradley. 
Webster. Reply to Hayne. Edited by Professor C. B. Bradley. 

Addison. De Coverley Papers. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Carlyle. Essay on Burns. Edited by Henry W. Boynton. 

Macaulay. Essay on Addison. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Chatham. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Clive. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Milton. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Johnson. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Essay on Warren Hastings. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
Shakespeare. Julius Caesar. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

Macbeth. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 105 112 P # 



OF 



lEnGlisb Classics. 



Uniform with this Volume. Price 20 Cents. 




Burke. 


On Conciliation with the Colonies. 


C. B. Bradley. 


Webster. 


Reply to Hayne. 


C, B. Bradley. 


Addison. 


De Coverley Papers. 


S. Thur.^; 


Carlyle. 


Essay On Burns. 


H. W. Boynton 


Macaulay 


Essay on Addison. 
Essay on Milton. 
Essay on Johnson. 
Essay on Chatham. 
Essay on Clive, 
Essay on Warren Hastings. 


S. Thurber 


Shakespeare. 


Julius Csesar. 

Macbeth. 
Merchant of Venice. 




Matthew Arnold. Essays in Criticism. 


S. S. Sheridan 




0^/?er volumes in pi'eparatio7i. 





ALLYN AND BACON, Publishers, 

172, -Tremont St., BOSTON. 355, Wabash Ave., CHICAGO. 



